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Youths from North Eastern Province are being recruited by rival militias to fight in war-torn Somalia, an administrator said yesterday. The disclosure was made as the Government called off refugee registration at Liboi entry point.

North Eastern provincial commissioner Kiritu Wamae said that hundreds of local youths were being lured by a local leader to become fighters in the conflict that pits the Transitional National Government (TNG) of interim president Abdullahi Ahmed Yussuf and the increasingly powerful Union of Islamic Courts.

The PC said the General Service Unit had been called in to man the 1,500km porous border with Somalia to thwart attempts by the warring factions to recruit fighters from the province.

He said the secret recruitment was considered by the State as a threat to the region's security.

Addressing the public at the Garissa Baraza Park, the PC said the leader, whose name he declined to divulge, was targeting for recruitment unemployed youths on behalf of the protagonists in the Somali civil strife for a fee.

Reports indicated that youths were crossing into the war shattered country to take part in a holy war declared by the Islamic Courts leader against members of the TNG and any possible foreign deployment to shore up the TNG.

Mr Wamae cautioned the residents, especially the youth, against involving themselves in a foreign conflict. He termed the move as treasonable, adding that the Government would not hesitate to arrest those spearheading the illegal recruitment and urged the residents to report such people to the police.

At the same time he warned Kenyans living on the border not to harbour refugees following the detection of a case of polio at Hagardera refugee camp. It was the first case of polio reported in the country in the past 22 years.

The PC said refugee registration was halted after it was discovered that 60 Kenyan ethnic Somalis had registered with the UN refugee agency UNHCR in the hope of being resettled in the West.

He said the resettlement programme, which is processed at the Dadaab refugee camps and Nairobi weekly, has contributed to the influx of refugees.

He caused prolonged laughter when he said some of the fresh entrants were claiming that they fled after the Islamic Courts that controls much of southern Somalia banned the use of khat (miraa) imported from Kenya and were only coming to the camps to enjoy the use of the mild narcotic drug.

The Somalis living in the refugee camps at Dadaab Division would soon swap places with the Sudanese refugees at Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana District to end rampant cross border movement that has contributed to gun running, smuggling of contraband and human trafficking.

He also disclosed that scores of Kenyans had been registered as refugees at the Dagahley and Ifo camps.


Godeynews.com

Source: Nationmedia.com