this is bbc news. the headlines: british police have arrested another person in connection with monday's suicide bomb attack at a concert in the city of manchester. 11 people are currently being detained and the chief counter—terrorism officer said most of the network believed to be linked to the bombing had now been detained. egypt's airforce has been in action in libya, targeting jihadists in the east of the country. egypt's president, abdel fattah al—sisi, said the strikes were in retaliation for a militant attack on a bus carrying coptic christians. at least 28 people were killed in the ambush south of cairo. the united nations secretary—general says the paris climate change agreement will not collapse if president trump does as he has threatened — and withdraws the united states. antonio guterres called on donald trump to stay engaged with the agreement. now on bbc news — for six years the kenyan army has been fighting islamist militants in somalia, known as al—sha baab. as part of an exclusive

investigation, the bbc has discovered that kenyan women are being abducted and trafficked as sex slaves to al—shabaab camps. anne soy meets women who've managed to escape from the camps, and an al—shabaab insider who reveals, for the first time, how vulnerable women are captured and imprisoned. this film contains some content viewers may find disturbing. mombasa, can you's bustling second city. —— kenya. it is a magnet for people looking for work. there is a dark side, here. in a backstreet, a room of extra ordinary women need to share their stories. translation: they would bring two or three men for each woman every night. we would be raped repeatedly. these women are the hidden face of a regional war that seems without end.

for six years, the kenyan army has been part of a force fighting the islamist militants, al—shabaab, in somalia. now, a disturbing development: the bbc has discovered that kenyan women are being abducted and trafficked to become sex slaves for al—shabaab. we speak to an insider, who reveals how they kidnap vulnerable women. translation: they said, i want to ta ke translation: they said, i want to take you to work. then they hijacked me. to the forest. it is a growing problem that the kenyan government seems to be ignoring. the few who do manage to escape are too frightened to talk openly. if anyone went to somalia, however they went there, whether it was willingly or trafficked, they are being looked as terrorists. i've too can you's northern coast to see the secret trade in trafficked women, and to

hear their horrifying story is told for the first time. —— kenya's. —— i've gone to. the coastal city of mombasa is predominantly muslim. it's a city of more than a million people, with high unemployment, and it's always had an uneasy relationship with the government. salama ali, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, was born and raised here, an ordinary middle—aged woman who makes her living selling fish. but nine months ago, her life took an unexpected twist. translation: i am also a victim of al—shabaab. two of my brothers disappeared without a trace after being radicalised. after that, ourfamily was discriminated against. but some women who knew what i was going through started sharing their stories with me.

we discovered there were lots of us. many families are shunned when relatives join al—sha baab. but salama uncovered stories about women who had been kidnapped and taken to somalia. all of these women have covered themselves to protect their identity, and we have changed their names. they are a range of ages and faiths, but all have suffered at the hands of al—shabaab. translation: some came back with babies, and some having contracted hiv and aids. some even came back mad, because of the trauma they were exposed to. because nothing was being done to help these women, salama took it upon herself to train as a counsellor. she set up a support group that meets in secret at undisclosed locations. the women talk of being tricked, they were promised jobs in other cities, but instead they ended up as slaves of al—shabaab. those men used to come

and have sex with me. i can't tell you the number. for those three years, every man was coming to sleep with me. you could have the same man maybe only twice. the rest of the time, you were sleeping with a different man. translation: i was cooking for a very big team, but i did not get to see them. those who came for food had their faces covered. but you knew they were men because of their voices. i only got to see the faces of the ones who came to have sex with me. these men call themselves the lions of allah. they boast of having no mercy. the women say they are responsible for kidnapping and abusing them. allied to al-qaeda, al—shabaab are dedicated to creating a fundamentalist islamic state in somalia. the group has also carried out

a string of attacks in neighbouring countries, particularly kenya. amid these tensions, it's not easy to find out what's happening on the porous border between kenya and somalia. the densely wooded area is called the boni forest, and access is severely restricted. we are told we can see the trafficking routes from the air. the canopy below is dense. it's no doubt difficult to monitor this area. but from the air, we are seeing several cut lines, that we are told are routes the militants use for transport between kenya and somalia. back on the ground, locals on the kenyan side of the border tell me the boni forest is used by al—shabaab. they've found remains of recently—abandoned camps, and i'm told that women have been spotted being transported through the forest, en route to somalia.

sureya hersi runs a group called sisters without borders. they fight for the rights of impoverished muslim women of kenya's northern coast. even she has onlyjust learned about the trafficking problem. we never used to be aware. we discovered that, actually, we have women who were lured without their will, and taken to somalia. some of them have managed to come back to now tell their stories. but it's something that is very new. it's so new, that when i finally get to see the county commissioner in mombasa, he has no idea of the scale of the problem, and he's in charge of security. yeah, there could be cases of women being smuggled out, yeah. there could be a few cases of women being smuggled out. you say "a few",

could you put a number? no, i cannot give you the numbers, because, you see, these things are done discreetly. nobody comes out in the open to say, i am being trafficked, or i have been given a job in somalia. so people hide, to go looking for greener pastures, as it were. one of the reasons it's been hard to collect statistics, is that those trafficked don't want to talk to the authorities. they say they are frightened of reprisals. back at the office in nairobi, i contact human rights organisations, to see who is working with trafficked women. but no one, apart from salama ali and her support group in mombasa, seems to be helping. i hearfrom salama again.

she's been alerted to some new women who have just arrived back from somalia. so we return to the coast. salama is now the only known resource for women who have managed to escape from al—shabaab, and she is becoming increasingly nervous. we've come to a secluded place along kenya's coast, and we feel that the women would be more at ease here. they feel safer, and open up about what they have been going through, without having to look over their shoulder to see who's following them, or who's listening to them. the last time we visited salama she said that after we left, she spotted some suspicious—looking people who were following her, and so we don't want them to feel unsafe for speaking to us. salama wears her trademark black niqab. the two new arrivals she wants me to meet, faith and ayesha, are in more colourful dress.

over three days, i slowly gain their trust, and they tell me their shocking stories. both young women had been tricked into travelling to the north of the country with the promise of work, before being smuggled into a life of slavery with al—shabaab. faith was just 16 when she was approached by an elderly couple on the outskirts of mombasa. we were told that there was work in malindi, so we were taken that day ina nissan. we were given some water, but it's like the water was added with drugs. she says what happens next changes her life forever. when we gained consciousness, there were two men inside the room. they folded our eyes with those black scarves, they raped us in that room. we were, like... 0h, maybe this is the work we have been told we are coming to do. the tragedy started from there.

after being drugged again, faith finally wakes up to find herself alone in a thick forest. terrified, she spends the next three years of her life cooking for brutal men, who she believes were al—shabaab fighters. as we prepare dinner, the women begin to relax and reveal more detail of their abductions. they sing. their stories are

strikingly similar. but whilst faith spent three years in captivity, the ordeal lasted twice as long for ayesha. she too was promised a job by an elderly couple, this time in the town of garissa, near the somali border. but her dream job turned into a nightmare. we were asleep at that time, they came in and woke us with guns. they closed our nose and mouth, then they kidnapped us. the people who had promised her a job had actually sold her on to al—shabaab. ayesha's newjob was to be a sex slave for one of their fighters. this man that you were living with, was he always there? what did you think he was doing?

faith and ayesha have only recently escaped from captivity, but they've been left with lifelong reminders of their time with al—sha baab. faith delivered her child entirely alone, in the middle of the night, in a forest, held prisoner by al—shabaab. with only her scarf to cover the baby, she says she was lucky to have a little knowledge from her grandmother, who was a traditional midwife. ayesha also gave birth

to a child in captivity. when you look at your son, does that remind you of a very difficult part of your life? but not all women who end up in the camps have been kidnapped.

i meet sara, who has alsojust returned from somalia. unlike faith and ayesha, she had voluntarily gone with her husband, an al—shabaab fighter, but she has since left the group. though she says she wasn't involved herself, she explains how al—shabaab captures kenyan women. as the wife of a fighter, sara's job was to clean the weapons. she was also taught to make bombs. she claims the group target women in order to breed the next generation of fighters. sureya hersi is trying to understand

the magnitude of the trafficking problem by speaking to different people in the community. but such information is hard to come by. the biggest challenge that we have is with these women who come back traumatised. the main reason why women don't come out to speak, is because they also don't want to be shunned by their own community that they come from. people fear the government, they fear that if i look like i'm associated with you, and they know that you went to somalia and came back, then they might say i'm also part and parcel of the same problem. because, unfortunately, anybody who went to somalia,

irrespective of how they went there, whether willingly or trafficked, they are being looked as guilty, or probably are terrorists, or probably they are informers. nobody trusts them, they don't know why they are back. and that makes salama ali's work very difficult. there's a lot at stake. translation: the government doesn't know about the services i offer. i don't even want them to know. this would put our lives at risk. if the government discovers you've had contact with al—shabaab, you will be arrested, even killed. so, we fear talking about this publicly. we fear for our security. despite the risks, salama's secret mission is growing. she not only helps women who have managed to escape, but also an increasing number of families. we are looking for a place where we can interview the families of missing girls. we tried to go to their homes, but then they are afraid, they say they don't want the community to know what's going on. elizabeth has agreed to meet us. her sister disappeared over two years ago, tricked by a bogus agent who had promised her well—paid work in the middle east. translation: my sister left here for saudi arabia injanuary 2015. she was going for work. but she never made it. however, a month after she left,

she was able to sneak a call to elizabeth. she sounded troubled and fearful. she told me she was afraid she would never see us again. i asked her what was wrong, and she said she was not in saudi arabia but in somalia, in an al—shabaab camp. she immediately disconnected. we tried to call back straightaway, but we could not reach her. she called again and said she needed our help. she said she did not know how to get out. she pleaded for help, and then she disconnected. since that time, we have never heard from her again. sorry. we went looking for the agent that had tricked elizabeth's sister, but he was nowhere to be found. this agent rented office space right in the middle of town.

here it's busy, clearly he wanted to look authentic. and for the duration of time he was open for business, we are not sure how many girls he was able to target. but we are told that as soon as elizabeth's sister disappeared, he closed shop. the lure of a well—paid job makes kenyan women easy prey for traffickers, now an ever—present danger on the coast next to somalia. sara, the former wife of an al—shabaab fighter, told me how the militants specifically target kenyans. kenya has taken the battle to al—sha baab.

in 2011, the kenyan government sent their forces into southern somalia, ousting the militants from all major towns and cities. al—shabaab's revenge was to hit back repeatedly on kenyan soil. the deadly attack on the popular westgate shopping mall in the heart of nairobi shocked the world. 67 people were killed in the four—day siege. and even more recently, the group inflicted the biggest—ever defeat on the kenyan army. the un says at least 150 kenyan soldiers were killed at a base in southern somalia last year. al—shabaab is clearly kenya's biggest security threat, and sureya hersi is in no doubt of the scale of the problem, whetherfrom radicalisation, or the abduction and trafficking

of women to somalia. i don't think anybody has any statistics. probably the government could have their own ways of finding out. and i can assure you, almost every family is affected. you either know somebody, or your neighbour has gone. in the course of this investigation, i tried repeatedly to find out from the government what was being done to stop this trade in kenyan women, but all attempts proved futile. it has been very difficult and frustrating to get comment from the relevant government officials on this issue. this is the second time i've come to this office this week, and i've just been thrown out by the regional coordinator of security, the man in charge of security in this region. for faith and her daughter, it's a long road back to a normal life. it was a really hard time for her,

because she was used to the forest, it's notjust sleeping indoors that is new for her daughter. she's also wearing clothes for the very first time. salama and her group share a special bond through similar tragedy. sometimes i call all the members of the group together,

to introduce a new member. we have a small party, and at the end, we introduce the new member. then we journey together in the healing process. all those girls did not go there willingly, they were looking for money, and hoping to get a good life. but actually what they got was sexual abuse. without any support for victims, or increased awareness of the risks they face, vulnerable women on kenya's coast remain easy prey. until government and communities recognise the problem of trafficking, it seems that al—sha baab will continue to kidnap with impunity. hello.

with a bank holiday weekend now upon us, we are set to see a bit of a change in this hot, dry weather, that has been with us for the past few days. here was the scene on friday, in moray, captured by one of our weather watchers. we will have similar conditions to start the bank holiday weekend. a humid start. more sunshine, but we are expecting to see some thunderstorms disrupting the sunshine. now, during saturday morning, we've got this frontal system, this area of low pressure, moving from the south and west, bring showers and thunderstorms across many parts of the country. for northern ireland, northern england, right down towards the south—east, through saturday morning, we will see the showers. during the afternoon, they will spread a little bit further north across the country. they are bumping into the warm air in place. 30 degrees or so across northern and north—eastern scotland. so lots of fuel for these big showers and the thunderstorms. could be some hail mixed in.

this is a:00pm on saturday afternoon. so thundery showers likely across central scotland, northern ireland, into northern england. to the south of that, a little fresher than it has been. we may still see temperatures in one or two spots up to around 28 degrees. so lots of sunny weather on the cards still, through the course of saturday. but we've got those showers across northern parts of the country as we move through saturday evening and overnight, so the odd rumble of thunder here. but on into sunday morning, clearer skies across southern parts of the country. and it will feel a little more comfortable for sleeping through the early hours of sunday morning, so temperatures typically down to 13 or 1a degrees. with a risk of some heavy downpours at times on saturday and late on sunday, there could be flooding on the road. perhaps some spray around, some poor visibility, if you have got plans to be heading off for half—term holidays. now, during sunday, we've got the next batch of showers working in from the english channel. on sunday, you could see a chance of catching an odd thunderstorm. pretty hit—and—miss, and actually many parts of the country having a drier day, with temperatures between about 16 and 26 degrees or so.

but a chance on sunday night and then on to bank holiday monday, that we will see some of the showers becoming a bit more extensive. some uncertainty about their exact positioning. looks like, again, they will work their way gradually north and eastwards across the country as we had through bank holiday monday. they will be hit and miss. not everywhere will get a heavy or thundery shower. and it is a return to some sunny skies and the south. definitely not as hot as we get to bank holiday monday. a cooler and a fresher outlook as we head through into the course of tuesday and wednesday. have a good weekend. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is gavin grey. 0ur the globe. my name is gavin grey. our top stories: tracking down the terror network surrounding the manchester bomber: uk police say they've made "immense progress". they're very significant, these arrests. we're very happy we've got our hands around some of the key players that we're concerned about. like i say, there's still a little bit more to do. more details emerge

about the bomber. a formerfriend told the bbc his behaviour had changed in the last six months. funerals in egypt for the coptic christians killed in an attack on friday. the country retaliates with airstrikes on libya. reports that president trump's son—in—law discussed a secret back—channel between the trump transition team and the kremlin.