The U.S. government has announced that it is doubling the rewards offered for information on Al Shabaab leader Ahmed Diriye and two other senior members of the Somali terrorist group, according to a State Department Rewards for Justice release.
The statement said it is offering $10 million (a similar figure in euros) for «information leading to the identification or location of senior Al Shabaab officials Ahmed Diriye, Mahad Karate, and Jehad Mostafa.»
He stressed that he is also offering the same amount for «information leading to the disruption of Al Shabaab’s financial mechanisms,» marking the first time Washington has offered rewards for information on the terrorist group’s financial networks.
The United States has stressed that Al Shabaab «is the main Al Qaeda affiliate in East Africa and recalled that «it is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Somalia, Kenya and neighboring countries that have killed thousands of people, including U.S. citizens».
The US country designated Al Shabaab as a terrorist organization in 2008, while Diriye was listed as a terrorist in April 2015, after ascending to the leadership of the group in September 2014 following the death of Ahmed Godane.
For his part, Karate, considered Diriye’s ‘number two’, was designated by the United States in 2015. The man is considered to be one of the heads of Al Shabaab’s intelligence and security wing, in charge of overseeing suicide bombings and assassinations in Somalia and other countries on the continent.
Mostafa is a U.S. citizen who resided in California and works as a military instructor in Al Shabaab training camps. He is also an important figure in the group’s communication and propaganda network and serves as a «go-between» with other terrorist organizations.
Somalia has increased in recent months the offensives against Al Shabaab and has even banned the name of the group to refer to the organization, which maintains ties with Al Qaeda. Thus, it has demanded that it be referred to as ‘jauarij’, a word meaning «deviant sect».
The offensives against Al Shabaab, which are supported by clans and local militias, are part of a series of decisions taken by the new president, Hassan Shaykh Mohamud, who promised on taking office to put the fight against terrorism at the center of his efforts to stabilize the African country.
