BRITISH youths in the UK could be radicalised as Africa becomes a potential new front for counter-terrorism.
The radicalisation of British youths seen in some sections of the Pakistani, North African and Indian communities over the past 15 years could spread across Somali communities too, the Royal United Services Institute said in a report yesterday.
The UK cannot expect to remain immune as al Qaeda, weakened following the death of Osama bin Laden in May last year, looks to partnerships in Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa to re-group, it added.
The report's author, Valentina Soria, said Western security and intelligence agencies face new challenges "as jihadism evolves into ungoverned space across large areas of the African continent".
"Most significant is the potential for radicalisation and then mobilisation of a new subset of British youths," she wrote.
She added that the "dynamics of jihadism in Africa may provoke direct attacks inside the UK" but said there was "no public evidence of this happening".
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