Missing Nairobi girl SMS: I’m now in Syria, I’ll contact mummy when I settle
Two 20-year-old girls who disappeared from their Nairobi homes last week have sent messages to relatives claiming they have joined terror outfit Islamic State in Syria (ISIS), media reports indicate.
The two girls are Salwa Abdalla and Twafiqa Dahir. According to The Standard newspaper, one of the girls, Twafiqa, made the big announcement on Sunday in a ‘Telegram’ chat with one of her cousins when she said she had entered Syria.
“I received the first message at 9.28 p.m. when she informed me that she had arrived in Syria. We finished chatting at 9.47 p.m. She promised to get back to me on Monday after buying a new phone and getting a home to stay at,” the cousin, who identified herself as Rahama Abnasir, told The Standard.
John Chege tweeted what he claims to be a message from Twafiqa announcing her arrival in Syria.
“A message from the one of the two Kenyan missing girls highlighted on TV yesterday… seems they joined ISIS in Syria,” he captioned a screen shot of the message.
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Parents of the two girls broke down on national television while talking about their daughters whom they all described as disciplined.
Twafiqa is a University of Nairobi student while Salwa is a second year Education student at the Kenyatta University.
“Twafiqa came home from the madrassa on Wednesday afternoon together with Salwa. She was dropping her cousins and siblings from the madrassa. She then excused herself to escort Salwa. From that moment, both their phones went off,” Twafiqa’s mother told The Standard.
If true, the two will become the first known cases of East Africans falling for the lure to join the IS, a terrorist outfit responsible for macabre killings in Iraq and Syria.
IS has been luring young girls from outside Middle-East with sleek cars, monthly salary, candy and Disney-like lifestyle in a bid to replenish their troops.
Earlier this year, Kenya authorities intercepted two women from Kenyan and one from Tanzania in Wajir as they attempted to cross to Somalia to get married to Al Shabaab.