Boko Haram: Catch Shekau, get N1.1bn – US

THE United States took an unprecedented step, yesterday, when it  posted a price tag of $23million, an equivalent of N3.3 billion on the head of top Al- Qaeda-linked terrorists in Nigeria and West Africa.  Nigeria’s Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, attracts the highest reward of $7 million (N1.1 billion) for anybody that can provide information that can lead to his capture.
The $23 million reward money shelled out by the US include the sum of  $5 million  placed on Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the Algerian-based Al-Qaeda, who led the hostages attack in Southern Algerian town of Menas in February 2013. He was later reported to have been killed by Chadian troops in Mali.
Another sum of $5 million was placed on Yahya Abou Al-Hammam, a top leader of Ansar Dine in Mali, while the names of two others were not available at press time. A US official in Washington told AFP that US is determined to hunt down the leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Shekau

The US which has been hesitant to declare Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, (FTO), has set in motion a massive manhunt for the terrorist leaders, who have spread insecurity across Nigeria and  West Africa.
Officials of US Embassy told Vanguard that they were awaiting clarification from Washington but would not rule out the possiblity of such move from the US government which is growing impatient with activities of the Islamic militants in West Africa. The US has already set up a surveillance drone base in NigerRepublic.
The US State Department, last year, designated three Boko Haram leaders as terrorists. They are Abubakar Shekau, Abubakar Adam Kambar and Khalid el Barnawi, all thought to have ties with a branch of Al-Qaeda.
The move meant any assets belonging to the men in the US would be frozen, and contact with US citizens banned.
The United States thinks that some members of Boko Harem have connections with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a group already designated as a terrorist organisation by the US.
Also last year, some US lawmakers wanted the US State Department to designate Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization, FTO, a formal move that would trigger automatic sanctions against the Islamist militant group.  The lawmakers said the Justice Department in Washington supports the designation.
Three US senators introduced a bill that would force the State Department to take a decision, because they felt that Boko Haram is “becoming increasingly lethal and forging closer ties to Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabab,” an Islamist militant group in Somalia.
US Senators Scott Brown, Saxby Chambliss and Jim Risch say Boko Haram is a threat both to the international community and US national security.