The United States has placed a bounty of $10 million for information that will help trace leaders of the Somali al-Shabaab terrorist group as well as dismantling the finances of the al-Qaeda-aligned group as it steps up attacks on government forces and civilians in the Horn of Africa nation.
The US Department of State which announced the offer on Monday, said it was placing the reward for information on top al-Shabab leaders through its Rewards for Justice programme.
“Al-Shabaab is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and neighboring countries that have killed thousands of people, including US citizens,” the Department said in a statement.
“Washington is seeking information on al-Shabaab’s “Emir”, Ahmed Diriye; his second-in-command, Mahad Karate and Jehad Mostafa, an American citizen whom the State Department describes as a leader of the group’s foreign fighters and media wing and the highest-ranking terrorist with US citizenship fighting overseas.
“Somalia remains key to the stability and security in all of East Africa. The US Africa Command’s forces will continue training, advising, and equipping partner forces to give them the tools that they need to defeat al-Shabaab,” the statement reads.
The State Department has long linked Diriye to a 2020 attack on a military base in Kenya that killed one US soldier and two contractors.
The Rewards for Justice programme had previously offered up to $6m for information on Diriye, who is also known as Abu Ubaidah.
In the past few months, the al-Shabaab fighters have intensified attacks in Somalia as it has fights with government forces in different regions.
Early this month, the group carried out what was seen as the deadliest attack in years after a twin bombing at the Somali Ministry of Education killed over 500 people and wounded over 1,000 others.
The group’s renewed intense attacks came after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud who took office in May, pledged an “all-out war” against the terrorists, which was followed by government troops and allied militias taking the fight to the militants and making gains against them.