According to the MidEast News Source, the children, mainly from Minneapolis and Minnesota left the country in secret, with one mother claiming that the first she knew of it was when her son called her from Mogadishu. She had earlier reported her son missing to police.

Somalia, which has been without an effective government since 1990, recently appointed a new leader, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a moderate Islamist cleric. But hopes for peace were rocked this week when a group of 300 clerics and elders set a deadline for the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers.

Ahmed is hoping to work with the clerics to bring peace to war-ravaged nation, and they also called for Islamist fighters to back peace moves. They urged the militants to stop killing, abducting, robbing and harming foreign aid workers in the country.

However, the call for the removal of peacekeepers puts the nascent government in a difficult position, as it needs them to establish order.

Observers believe that American children are now joining the jihad, and they have suggested that some were involved in a string of suicide attacks in Somaliland and Puntland.

It seems that their involvement coincided with the arrival of Ethiopian troops, who defeated the Islamic Courts Union. Following the recent peace deal, the Ethiopian troops have now departed.

Most of the children appear to have links with Abubakar Alsiddiq mosque in Minneapolis. But the imam there, Sheikh Abdirahman Ahmed, claimed the accusations were baseless and denied that he was recruiting fighters. There are also concerns in Europe and other continents that children are leaving for jihad in Somalia.

Contact our Africa Desk

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