When Salama Ali started investigating the disappearance of her two younger brothers last year, she made an awful discovery: not only were radicalised young Kenyan men leaving to join the Al Shabaab militants in neighbouring Somalia, but women were being seized and trafficked by the group as sex slaves. Salama’s search for information about her brothers had to be carried out quietly and confidentially as any hint of a connection with the Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab could arouse the suspicion of the security forces. So she met discreetly with other women in Mombasa and the surrounding area, sharing stories and seeking information about male relatives who had vanished. “We discovered there were lots of us,” Salama says. But Salama also uncovered something very different: stories of women who had been taken to Somalia against their will. The women were both young and old, from Christian and Muslim communities, from Mombasa and other parts of Kenya’s coastal region. They were usually promised high-paid work in another town or abroad, and then kidnapped. Last September, Salama trained as a counsellor and set up a secret support group for returning women. Word spread and soon women began seeking her out and asking to join the group. ***prbxselfnetwork***
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