The US today Monday June 3rd posted up to
$23 million in rewards to help track down
five leaders of militant groups accused of
spreading terror in west Africa.
The highest reward of $7 million is
offered for the Boko Haram leader Abubakar
Shekau, who last week called on Islamists
in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to join
the bloody fight to create an Islamic
state in Nigeria.
The US State Department’s Rewards for
Justice program also targeted Al-Qaeda in
the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), offering its
first ever bounties for wanted militants
in west Africa.
Up to $5 million was posted for Al-Qaeda
veteran Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the one-eyed
Islamist behind the devastating attack on
an Algerian gas plant in January in which
37 foreigners, including three Americans,
were killed.
A further $5 million was offered for top
AQIM leader Yahya Abou Al-Hammam,
reportedly involved in the 2010 murder of
an elderly French hostage in Niger.
Malik Abou Abdelkarim, a senior fighter
with AQIM, and Oumar Ould Hamaha, the
spokesman for Mali’s Movement for Oneness
and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), were
also targeted by the rewards program,
which will give up to $3 million each for
information leading to their arrests.
Source: AFP
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