The United States announced on Monday it was increasing the reward to $10 million for locating three leaders of the shebab in Somalia, the scene of a bloody upsurge in attacks by the radical Islamist group in recent weeks.
“The US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program … is increasing its reward offerings up to $10 million each for information that identifies or singles out key Shabab leaders Ahmed Diriye, Mahad Karate, and Jehad Mostafa,” the statement from the US embassy in Kenya said.
This reward also applies to any information “leading to the disruption of Shebab’s financial mechanisms”, adds the US embassy.
This is “the first time the (State) Department has offered a reward for information on al-Shabaab’s financial networks,” he added.
Ahmed Diriye is the leader of Shebab, an Islamist group linked to Al Qaeda since 2014, which has been leading an insurrection against the federal government for 15 years to establish Islamic law in Somalia. He has so far been targeted for a six million dollar reward.
Mahad Karate is considered the number 2 of the movement.
Jehad Mostafa, a US citizen residing in California, is considered a leading military instructor and a “leader in the use of explosives” for the attacks.
“The FBI believes Mostafa is the highest-ranking American terrorist fighting overseas,” the embassy said.
– Cursed year –
This announcement comes as Somalia faces a bloody upsurge in the Shebab attacks, which have sworn the loss of the federal government backed by the international community.
The latest, a double car bomb attack in the capital Mogadishu on Oct. 30, left 121 dead and 333 injured according to the United Nations citing official Somali figures on Monday, the deadliest attack in the country since 2017.
On Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said more than 600 civilians had been killed this year in the group’s attacks in the volatile Horn of Africa country.
This is the highest toll since 2017 and an increase of more than 30% compared to 2021.
These attacks are carried out in response to an offensive by the Somali army, supported by local clan militias, which has made it possible to reconquer land from Shebab in the center of the country.
The U.S. military regularly carries out air strikes against Shebab positions, in support of this offensive.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud had promised in mid-August “total war” to eliminate the Shebab and invited the population to “stay away” from areas controlled by Islamists which would have been subject to future offensives, after a bloody attack – which lasted more than thirty hours – against a hotel in Mogadishu which caused at least 21 deaths and 117 injuries.
The Shebabs have been driven out of major cities – including Mogadishu in 2011 – but remain firmly established in large rural areas from where they carry out attacks particularly against security and government targets.
