UN report: IS-Somalia doubles in size in one year amid growing terror concerns

A new report published by the UN Sanctions Monitoring Team for Somalia warns, that the Islamic State’s Somali branch, while still relatively small is growing steadily, due to in part to what United Nations experts describe as an “influx of foreign fighters.” The report went on to add “foreign fighters arrive in Puntland [Somalia] using both maritime and overland routes,” based on intelligence estimates from UN member states. The so-called IS-Somalia has thus more than doubled in size to between 600 and 700 fighters over the past one year. Foreign fighters from countries across Africa and some in the Middle East “have expanded and enhanced the group’s capabilities,” the report noted, strengthening the terrorist organization’s presence in Somalia’s Puntland region, including at the expense of its key rival, al-Qaida-linked terror group al-Shabab.