people were held "after being captured by the joint forces of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and Ethiopia". It added that 29 were slated for release, including four Britons, and that there were no 'secret' prisons.

But flight manifests held by HRW show at least 85 people were deported from Kenya to Somalia on three planes chartered by two airlines, African Express Airways and Sudan's Bluebird Aviation, on January 20 and 27, and February 10.

Meanwhile, according to former prisoners like Kamilya, Western intelligence agencies are taking advantage of the situation to conduct clandestine interrogations. "I was in Addis Ababa for six weeks. A US man interrogated me. When I asked him who he was, he didn't want to tell," said Kamilya.

Earlier this year the US Government denied the detentions were part of a

‘A US man interrogated me in Addis Ababa. When I asked him who he was, he didn’t want to tell’

covert rendition programme but conceded that interviews with detainees have produced "valuable information". The new approach to Africa reflects a heightened concern among US policy-makers about the possibility of militant Islamist groups penetrating Africa, which is already home to large, albeit traditionally moderate, Muslim communities.

"The terrorist challenge has increased in Africa in the past year," said Professor Peter Pham, a US advisor on Africa to the Pentagon. "It's gotten a new lease of life."

This concern is reflected in the Pentagon's construction of a new unified military command for Africa, dubbed Africom, due to be up and running before September this year, according to Pham.

For those such as Kamilya, caught up as a new front in the 'war on terror' opens, there is little hope of explanation or compensation for their ordeals.