An Egyptian state-owned magazine has reported on documents found in the home of a Muslim Brotherhood leader detailing a Muslim Brotherhood plan for expansion in Africa believed to date from 2000. The documents, said to be part of the case file in the current military trial of the Brotherhood, were reportedly found in the home of Khayrat Al-Shatir the second deputy supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Shatir was also described as the “prince of the international organization” , a likely reference to the Brotherhood”s International operations.The report describes one facet of the expansion plan involving the provision of scholarships to students in West Africa:
The plan calls for offering scholarships to outstanding students in West Africa and bring them over to Cairo to study in private universities. The Muslim Brotherhood pays the tuition from the funds raised by a so-called charity organization called Al-Dia led by someone called Nasir Mansur. The plan of the Muslim Brotherhood covers a five-year time span during which the targeted students major in medicine, pharmacy, engineering, accounting, and administrative sciences….Through its international organization, the group executed one of its most critical plans to expand in several African states, to be exact – according to the documents – in Ghana, Somalia, Djibouti and the Comoros. It offers outstanding students in these countries scholarships to study in Cairo under a dazzling project that arouses no suspicions called “For the Development of Human Resources in Africa.’
The document also details earlier Brotherhood activities in the same parts of Africa:
But scholarships are not the only way for the Muslim Brotherhood to invade Africa. What is good for Ghana – in western Africa – may be seen as suspicious in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. Therefore, in 1991 the Muslim Brotherhood sent a religious convoy comprising seven elements led by someone called “brother Al-Shami.” The convoy remained in Djibouti three weeks to “level the ground.” After that, two teachers – which the report does not name – were sent there. The following years, the number of teachers increased to 25 individuals who were able to recruit 500 new brothers in Djibouti. Teachers also helped the Muslim Brotherhood enter Somalia in 1993. The Muslim Brothers sent groups of teachers who were well trained and had previous experience in Yemen. One day, the Somalis saw 30 brothers arriving in their midst working in a tense, high-strung atmosphere for the civil war was raging everywhere.If the Muslim Brotherhood relied on the teachers they pulled from Yemen to work in Somalia, they began working with the students of the Comoros studying in Egypt and Sudan. They founded a charity group called “The Social Guidance Association” which was very active in the Comoros.The Muslim Brotherhood cells continue to work and try to recruit other individuals, portrayed by reports as forming an effective political block in the islands, which formed a party, has two ministers in the cabinet and two out of twenty elected members of the parliament. This shows that the Muslim Brotherhood presence in the Comoros has grown and become stronger over the past decade, according to the “visitor’s report.”
According to the documents, the Brotherhood’s efforts were numerically successful:
Documents indicate that the group managed to recruit 10,000 supporters in Somalia, 500 persons in Djibouti, 57 Muslim Brotherhood and 60 sympathizers in the Comoros. These figures are matched in the reports of the international organization’s elements, or “visitors” who tour these African states, which before 1990 ignored everything about the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is difficult to judge the validity of these document given the Egyptian’s government’s relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. However, the activities they describe are consistent with the known “modus operandi” of the Brotherhood. It should also be noted that Ahmed Nasreddin, the former business partner of Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Nada, controls a business empire in Nigeria whose day-to-day operations are controlled by his son.
(note: Egypt: Article Examines Muslim Brotherhood Outreach in Africa Article by deputy chief editor Hamdi Rizq: “Muslim Brotherhood in Africa” Al-Musawwar Friday, June 1, 2007 T14:24:34Z Document Type: OSC Translated Text)