Police Pursue Al-Shabaab Pilot Who is Allegedly Planning Aviation Attack in Kenya

Kenyan security agencies are pursuing a terror suspect identified as Rashid Mwalimu, a trained pilot.

Authorities say Rashid, who is wanted by the anti-terrorism police, is on a mission to carry out an aviation attack on behalf of Somalia-based terror group Al-Shabaab.

Security agencies are appealing to members of the public to volunteer information that may lead to the arrest of Rashid, who is described as armed and dangerous. Police believe Rashid, who is currently in Somalia, will be trying to sneak back into the country.

Investigations revealed that he trained as a pilot in the Philippines alongside his accomplice Cholo Abdi Abdulla, who is facing six counts of terrorism-related charges in the US following his arrest in 2019. 

The two are said to be close friends and joined Al-Shabaab in 2015 before being picked to train as pilots to afterward be deployed to hijack airplanes.

They were also close friends of Salim Gichunge (Faruq) and Osman Gedi, who staged the DusitD2 terror attack in Nairobi in January 2019.

Cholo was apprehended in July 2019 in the Philippines where he had been studying aviation at the All-Ais aviation academy. After his arrest, his colleague Mwalimu escaped back to Somalia. 

US authorities said the two were in the Philippines to receive pilot training as part of a terrorist scheme to hijack a commercial aircraft and crash it into a building in the US.

Having undergone pilot training, Abdi allegedly started researching ‘how to hijack aircraft to carry out a 9/11-style attack.’