{"id":54705,"date":"2022-11-18T13:27:33","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T21:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=54705"},"modified":"2022-11-21T09:28:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T17:28:09","slug":"rewards-for-justice-reward-offers-for-information-on-key-leaders-of-al-shabaab-ahmed-diriye-mahad-karate-and-jehad-mostafa-and-the-disruption-of-its-financial-mechanisms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=54705","title":{"rendered":"Rewards for Justice \u2013 Reward Offers\u202ffor Information on Key Leaders of al-Shabaab Ahmed Diriye, Mahad Karate, and Jehad Mostafa, and the Disruption of its Financial Mechanisms"},"content":{"rendered":"
11\/18\/2022 03:38 PM EST<\/div>\n

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Office of the Spokesperson<\/p>\n

The\u202fU.S. Department of State\u2019s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, which is administered by the Diplomatic Security Service, is increasing its reward offers to up to $10 million each for information leading to the identification or location of al-Shabaab key leaders Ahmed Diriye, Mahad Karate, and Jehad Mostafa.<\/p>\n

RFJ is also offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of al-Shabaab.\u00a0This announcement marks the first time that the Department has offered a reward for information on al-Shabaab\u2019s fundraising and financial facilitation networks.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabaab is al-Qa\u2019ida\u2019s\u00a0principal affiliate in East Africa. Al-Shabaab is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and neighboring countries that have killed thousands of people, including U.S. citizens. The Department of State designated al-Shabaab as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) in March 2008.\u00a0 In April 2010, Al-Shabaab was also designated by the UNSC\u2019s Somalia Sanctions Committee pursuant to paragraph 8 of resolution 1844 (2008).<\/p>\n

Ahmed Diriye, al-Shabaab\u2019s emir since September 2014, was designated by the Department as an SDGT on April 21, 2015, and by the UNSC\u2019s Somalia Sanctions Committee on September 24, 2014. He was seen in a video meeting with al-Shabaab fighters prior to the January 2020 attack on Camp Simba in Manda Bay, Kenya, that\u00a0killed one U.S. Army soldier and two U.S. contract personnel and wounded three additional U.S. personnel and one Kenyan soldier.<\/p>\n

Mahad Karate was designated by the Department as an SDGT on April 21, 2015, and by the UNSC\u2019s Somalia Sanctions Committee on February 26, 2021. Karate is al-Shabaab\u2019s second or shadow deputy emir and continues to lead some al-Shabaab operations. Karate maintains some command responsibility over\u00a0Amniyat, al-Shabaab\u2019s intelligence and security wing, which oversees suicide attacks and assassinations in Somalia, Kenya, and other countries in the region, and provides logistics and support for al-Shabaab\u2019s terrorist activities.<\/p>\n

Jehad Mostafa is a U.S. citizen and former resident of California. Mostafa\u00a0has served as a military instructor at al-Shabaab training camps, a leader of foreign fighters, a leader in al-Shabaab\u2019s media wing, an intermediary between al-Shabaab and other terrorist organizations, and a leader in al-Shabaab\u2019s use of explosives in terrorist attacks. In December 2019, he was indicted in federal court on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiring to provide material support to al-Shabaab, and providing material support to al-Shabaab.\u00a0The FBI assesses Mostafa to be the highest-ranking terrorist with U.S. citizenship fighting overseas.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabaab continues to rely on a range of fundraising and financial facilitation networks to sustain their operations and plan terrorist attacks globally. The Department of State is offering rewards for information leading to the identification and disruption of significant sources of revenue for al-Shabaab, including its exploitation of local natural resources, such as charcoal; extortion of civilians; financial contributions by donors and financial facilitators; financial transactions and funds held by cash couriers, financial institutions, virtual asset service providers, hawalas, and exchange houses; any businesses or investments owned or controlled by al-Shabaab or its facilitators; local and international front companies tied to al-Shabaab; other criminal schemes involving its members and supporters, such as money laundering, kidnapping-for-ransom operations, looting, and transfers of funding and materiel by al-Shabaab to its terrorist and militia proxies and partners, including criminal syndicates (e.g. weapons traffickers and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing networks).<\/p>\n

More information about\u202fthis reward offer\u202fis located on the Rewards for Justice website at\u202fwww.rewardsforjustice.net<\/a>.\u202fWe encourage anyone with information on al-Shabaab\u2019s key leaders, Ahmed Diriye, Mahad Karate, and Jehad\u00a0Mostafa,\u00a0and its financial mechanisms to contact Rewards for Justice via Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at +1-202-702-7843, or via local tips lines at\u00a0+252 68 43 43 308\u00a0in Somalia and\u00a0+254 71 87 12 366\u00a0in Kenya.\u202f All information will be kept strictly confidential.<\/p>\n

Since its inception in 1984, the program has paid out in excess of $250\u202fmillion to more than\u202f125\u202fpeople across the globe who provided actionable information that\u202fhad helped resolve threats to U.S. national security.\u202fFollow us on Twitter at\u202fhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/RFJ_USA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11\/18\/2022 03:38 PM EST   Office...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54706,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54705\/revisions\/54706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}