THE US is offering a $10 million bounty for information leading to the capture of Maalim Ayman and others who were involved in the January 5, 2020 attack on US and Kenyan personnel at the Manda Bay Airfield in Kenya that left an American soldier and two Department of Defence contractors dead.
Two other US servicemen and a Department of Defence contractor were wounded in the pre-dawn attack.
The reward is being offered under the US State Department’s Reward for Justice (RFJ) programme, which is administered by the Diplomatic Security Service.
The Manda Bay Airfield is part of a Kenyan Defence Forces military base used by US armed forces to provide training and counterterrorism support to East African troops, respond to crises, and protect US interests in the region.
A US State Department spokesman said: ‘Maalim Ayman is the leader of Jaysh Ayman, an al-Shabaab unit conducting terrorist attacks and operations in Kenya and Somalia.
‘Ayman was responsible for preparing the January 2020 attack.
‘In a video subsequently released by al-Shabaab, a spokesperson for the group claimed responsibility for the attack.’
In November 2020, the US designated Ayman as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), having labelled al-Shabaab as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and SDGT in March 2008.
In April 2010, al-Shabaab was placed under sanctions by the UN Security Council’s Somalia Sanctions Committee, while in February 2021 the committee did the same to Ayman.
Based in East Africa, al-Shabaab is seen as one of al-Qaida’s most dangerous affiliates and is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Kenya, Somalia, and neighbouring countries that have killed thousands of people.
‘The terrorist group continues to plot, plan, and conspire to commit terrorist acts against the United States, US interests, and foreign partners,’ the State Department spokesman said.
Since its inception in 1984, the RFJ programme has paid over $250 million to more than 125 people across the globe who provided information that helped in apprehending and convicting individuals who ‘committed, attempted, or conspired to commit, or aided or abetted’ terrorist attacks.
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