In an unprecedented move, the United States on Monday posted up to $23 million in rewards to help track down five leaders of militant groups accused of spreading terror in west Africa.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The US State Department\u2019s Rewards for Justice program also targeted Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), offering its first ever bounties for wanted militants in west Africa.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Malik Abou Abdelkarim, a senior fighter with AQIM, and Oumar Ould Hamaha, the spokesman for Mali\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAQIM has been increasingly active in north and west Africa. They\u2019re one of the pre-eminent kidnap for ransom groups in the terrorist world right now,\u201d a senior State Department official told AFP, asking not to be named.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey cause us a great deal of concern. Anything that we can do naturally to cut down on the capabilities of AQIM, anything that we can do to get information on these people so that we can get them in front of a court\u2026 That is our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The United States has been increasingly worried about the spread of Islamist groups in Mali and across the vast and lawless Sahel since a military coup ousted the government in Bamako.<\/p>\n
Former colonial power France has led a military offensive since January against the militants in Mali\u2019s northern desert, as the west African nation prepares for presidential elections on July 28.<\/p>\n
There are fears however that the spread of militant groups risks destabilizing the entire west African region.<\/p>\n
Belmokhtar, who was a senior commander for AQIM, broke away from the group last year to set up his own group dubbed the \u201cSignatories in Blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branded \u201cthe Uncatchable,\u201d Belmokhtar also personally supervised the operational plans for the twin car bombings in Niger that killed at least
\n20 people late last month, according to a spokesman for his group.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s rewards acknowledged the growing links between AQIM and Nigeria\u2019s Boko Haram, which is under pressure from a military offensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve had a relationship for some time. They send people back and forth for training, they\u2019ve done the provision of arms back and forth,\u201d the State Department official said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe links are\u2026 not quite as solid as some of the other terrorist organizations,\u201d he said. \u201cNonetheless, it\u2019s a dangerous link and it\u2019s something that we feel we should try and stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shekau, in a video obtained by AFP last week, claimed his forces had made significant gains against the Nigerian army while sustaining little damage since the start of the military offensive on May 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder his leadership, Boko Haram\u2019s capability has certainly grown,\u201d the State Department official told AFP.<\/p>\n
He highlighted how the group set off \u201ctheir first improvised explosive device in early June 2011. By August (2011) they used a car bomb against the United Nations facility,\u201d an attack which killed 25 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we see someone like this who\u2026 is actually leading to an increase in the capability of an organization, that\u2019s something that we would naturally try to see if we can do something to impede,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Shekau\u2019s whereabouts could not be determined in the video, in which he is shown seated and dressed in camouflage and a turban, with an AK-47 at his side.<\/p>\n
His comments contradict statements from the military, which has claimed major successes during the offensive, including the destruction of Boko Haram camps and dozens of arrests.<\/p>\n
Shekau was placed on a US blacklist last year, but Boko Haram has yet to be designated a foreign terrorist organization \u2014 an absence which has raised eyebrows among regional experts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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