Nigeria, Kenya Warn of Increasing Threat of Foreign Fighters

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta said many foreign combatants are joining Islamist militia groups in their countries, threatening the security of the region.

In Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, a five-year insurgency by Boko Haram has left more than 13,000 people dead. Foreign fighters are adding a “troubling dimension” as militant groups shift strategy to seizing terrain after staging attacks, Jonathan told the United Nations in New York yesterday. Half of the attackers in a deadly raid by al-Qaeda-linked militants on Nairobi’s Westgate mall a year ago were non-Kenyans, Kenyatta told the UN.