Born in Kenya to Somali parents, Ikrima is thought to have been associated with the planners of the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya, and of involvement with the 2002 Mombasa attacks. He lived in Norway as an asylum seeker from 2004 to 2008 in the town of Moelv, where he received Norwegian travel documents. He thereafter lived in the United Kingdom for about a year. He is reported to speak several languages, including English, Somali, Swahili, French, Norwegian and some Arabic.