US places $18m bounty on Ansaru leader, 3 others
The US State Department has placed a reward of $18million for the capture of Khaid al-Barnawi, the leader of Ansaru, a splinter group from Boko Haram, and three other African militants.
The four men are accused of kidnappings of foreigners and numerous attacks on Western targets.
According to a statement from the US embassy in Nigeria, the bounty on the ex-Boko Haram member and Ansaru leader is $5million. The same amount was offered for each of the two founding fathers of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), based in the Maghreb (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia), with a reward of $3million for an Egyptian suspected militant Abu Yusuf al-Muhajir, who is said to have plotted against the U.S.A.
“Ansaru has been acting separately from Boko Haram since early 2012. Its leader, al-Barnawi, has good relations with another dangerous terrorist group on the African continent, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The Nigerian terrorist group has targeted Westerners, including American citizens,” the statement read.
Al-Barnawi is said to have masterminded the May 2011 kidnapping of two foreign engineers, from Britain and Italy. Both of them were killed 10 months later.
The statement added further that “Ansaru was behind the abduction of seven foreigners in February 2013. The citizens of Britain, Italy, Greece and Lebanon were captured during terrorists’ raid on a construction site in Northern Nigeria. They were later executed by terrorists. The group along with its parent Boko Haram is on the UN’s black list since May 22, 2014.
The other official enemies of the U.S.A. include former AQIM members and MUJAO founders and leaders Ahmed el-Tilemsi ($5m) and Hamad el-Khairy ($5m).
Tilemsi was responsible for kidnapping of two French citizens in Niger (January 2011). The hostages were later killed in Mali, when France attempted to free them by force.
The second case of abduction was registered in Tindouf, Algeria, in October 2012. MUJAO negotiated prisoner swap deal and released three kidnapped Europeans in exchange for three ‘brothers-in-arms’ being jailed in Mauritania.
Khairy was reportedly behind several attacks in Mauritania, as well as the December 2008 kidnap of UN envoy and Canadian Ambassador Robert Fowler in Niger.