US Offers $10 Million Reward for Al-Shabaab Leader Behind Lamu Attack

The US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice has offered a $10 million (Sh1.2 billion) reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Maalim Ayman, the leader of the terrorist group Jaysh Ayman.

Jaysh Ayman is a unit of the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al-Shabaab, which has staged attacks in Kenya and Somalia.

The Department of State says Ayman was responsible for organizing the January 2020 attack on Manda Bay Airfield in Lamu, Kenya.

In the pre-dawn attack, Al-Shabaab terrorists killed a US soldier and two US Department of Defense (DoD) contractors and wounded two other US service members and a third DoD contractor.  

Six aircraft were also destroyed in the attack that triggered a lengthy shootout and daylong struggle for US and Kenyan forces to secure the base.

The initial phase of the attack came when a group of between 20 and 30 Al-Shabaab militants fired rocket-propelled grenades onto the airfield at the base.

In a video subsequently released by al-Shabaab, a spokesperson for the group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Manda Bay Airfield is a military base used by the Kenya Defense Forces and US armed forces to provide training and counterterrorism support to East African partners, respond to crises, and protect US interests in the region.

In November 2020, Ayman was designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) by the Department of State.

He was also designated by the UN Security Council’s Somalia Sanctions Committee in February 2021 pursuant to paragraph 8(a) of resolution 1844 (2008).