The U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program announced today that is offering a $10 million bounty for information leading to the capture and prosecution of Maalim Ayman, a Shabaab military commander behind the deadly 2020 raid on a Kenya base used by the U.S. military for counterterrorism operations in East Africa…
Maalim Ayman now joins three other Shabaab leaders with a $10 million bounty on their heads. The United States has placed bounties on other Shabaab leaders over the last several years, though all with lesser rewards. Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s branch in East Africa, is itself a U.S. designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Ayman is the emir of Shabaab’s Jaysh Ayman, or its military wing inside northeastern Kenya. In this role, he oversees attacks across Kenya’s northern counties of Mandera, Garissa, Wajir, and Lamu. It is believed that Jaysh Ayman also conducts attacks in the extreme southern portions of Somalia, as well.
Maalim Ayman is believed to be below Ahmed Iman Ali, Shabaab’s emir for Kenya, and both Yassir Jiis, its overall military emir, and Maalim Osman, Shabaab’s external operations emir, in Shabaab’s hierarchy.
He was previously added to the list of U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorists along with another Shabaab leader known as Abdullahi Osman Mohamed in 2020. Mohamad, also known as “Engineer Ismail,” is Shabaab’s emir for both its explosives department and propaganda output.
