Ghana man joins Islamic State, family says

A 25 year-old Muslim from Ghana has traveled to an
Islamic State (IS) training camp, becoming the first
known recruit from the West African nation to join the
militant group, his family said on Tuesday.
About one third of Ghana’s population of 27 million are
Muslims.

They have long co-existed peacefully with the Christian
majority and have so far apparently avoided the influence
of the kinds of radical Islam that have taken root in
neighbouring Nigeria and Mali.

Nazir Alema, a university graduate from Accra, had
initially told his parents he was traveling to Prestea, a
mining town in the country’s west.

“Two weeks later on Aug. 16, we got a message on social
media from him saying he was at a training ground to
join the IS group in an unknown country,” his brother,
Kabiru Alema, said.

Thousands of foreigners from more than 80 nations have
joined the ranks of Islamic State and other radical
groups in Syria and Iraq.

Alema said his brother had not expressed any particular
interest in radical Islam.

Alema quoted his brother as saying that by joining
Islamic State he was obeying a call from Allah to
abandon what he called `the corrupt system’.

“He said he loves us so much and that we should forgive
him for not making his intentions known to us from the
beginning,” Alema said.

The Ghanaian government was not immediately available
for comment.

Boko Haram, West Africa’s deadliest Islamist militant
group, swore allegiance to IS leader, Abu al-Baghdadi
in March.