The Foreign Office has told any Britons who ignored previous warnings to leave Somaliland to exit the breakaway territory immediately after a ‘specific threat’ against westerners was identified.
UK nationals have long been warned to stay away from the unrecognised de facto sovereign state in the north-west of Somalia due to the threat of kidnapping by terrorists and criminal gangs.
Britons with dual Somali nationality are thought to travel there regularly, however, while aid agencies are also thought to have staff members in Somaliland.
UK foreign secretary William Hague tweeted: ‘Any British nationals in Somaliland should leave: we’re aware of a specific threat against westerners.’
The Foreign Office had earlier updated its travel advice to say: ‘We are now aware of a specific threat to westerners in Somaliland, and urge any British nationals who remain there against our advice to leave immediately.
‘As our travel advice continues to make clear, kidnapping for financial or political gain, motivated by criminality or terrorism, remains a threat throughout Somalia.’
Last week Britons were urged to leave the western Libyan city of Benghazi due to a ‘specific and imminent threat’.
The terror threat in north Africa has been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks after the Algerian gas field hostage crisis, in which six Britons and one UK resident are thought to have been killed.
French military action in Mali, which the UK has backed and provided logistical support for, has also raised the threat of retaliatory action.
Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991, the same year Somaliland declared independence, but it has never been officially recognised.
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