US To Give You Ksh1.5B For Info On Al-Shabaab Boss

The United States (US) Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program is offering a reward of up to Ksh1.5 billion ($10 million) for information regarding the leader of the notorious Al Shabaab terrorist group.

RFJ revealed on Thursday, September 7 the identity of the leader of the group responsible for a series of terrorist attacks on Kenya and Somalia, as well as Uganda and Djibouti as Abu Ubaidah or Ahmed Diriye.

Abu Ubaidah serves as the leader of Al-Shabaab, a position he has occupied since the death of former Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane. 

Godane on the other hand was killed by an American airstrike on September 1, 2014, having taken over leadership of the group in 2008 from his predecessor, Aden Hashi Ayro, who was killed by a similar airstrike.

"Abu Ubaidah, also known as Ahmed Diriye, is the leader of the al-Shabaab (AS) terrorist group. Under his leadership, AS terrorists have conducted attacks in Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, and Djibouti that have resulted in the death of hundreds of individuals," RFJ stated while releasing Ubaidah's wanted poster.

Anyone with information about him is urged to text RFJ over Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp using the following numbers: +1-202-702-7843 (English), +254-718-712-366 (Kenya) or +252-684-343-308 (Somalia). Alternatively, one can visit the official website rewardsforjustice.net  and click on the rewards tab.

The agency also announced that anyone can contact them through its Tor-based tip line for Rewards for Justice. Tor, short for The Onion Router, is free and open-source software for enabling anonymous communication.

It directs Internet traffic via a free, worldwide, volunteer overlay network that consists of more than seven thousand relays. Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace a user's Internet activity.

Abu Ubaidah was in 2015 designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US State Department which resulted in the blocking of all property and interests within US jurisdiction associated with the suspect.

Furthermore, US citizens were banned from engaging in any transactions with him.

"It is a crime to knowingly provide, or attempt or conspire to provide, material support or resources to Al Shabaab," the US warned.

Around the same year, the Al Shabaab top brass was slapped with a $6 million bounty for his arrest for orchestrating various terrorist activities, but he still remains at large.

He was reportedly spotted in a November 2019 video released by Al Shaabab, where he was heard preparing the group for an attack. 

The militant group, which has caused havoc in the horn of Africa and North and Coastal parts have Kenya has been rocked by internal division on which global jihadist movement to pledge allegiance. The group currently eyes Al-Qaeda and ISIS as the factions to associate with.

Al-Shabaab has been battling for control of the Somali government with the intention of enforcing the Sharia laws in the country.