US offers Sh1.29 billion bounty for terror suspect linked to Manda Bay attack
The bounty on Abdullahi's head was issued by the US Department of State Rewards for Justice, a security rewards program established by Washington in 1984 to combat international terrorism.
The United States government has placed a bounty of up to Sh1.29 billion (USD 10 million) on the head of terror suspect Abdullahi Banati, who is linked to the 2020 terror attack on Manda Bay Airfield in Lamu County.
The bounty on Abdullahi's head was issued by the US Department of State Rewards for Justice (RFJ), a security rewards program established by Washington in 1984 to combat international terrorism.
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"Two DoD contractor pilots, both US citizens, were killed when their military aircraft was hit by RPGs on the tarmac of the airfield. A third DoD contractor, also a US citizen, survived the explosion with serious injuries," reads the RFJ's U.S. Army specialist.
A Kenyan soldier was also wounded during the attack.
According to RFJ, Abdullahi is reportedly a member of Jaysh al-Ayman, an elite Al-Shabaab unit formed to carry out operations inside Kenya. The unit is named after one of its notorious leaders, Maalim Ayman, also known as Dobow Abdiaziz Ali, an ethnic Somali from Mandera County
"Abdullahi Banati was one of the individuals involved in the operational planning of the January 5, 2020, attack on Manda Bay Airfield. Al-Shabaab — al-Qa'ida's principal affiliate in East Africa — is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Kenya, Somalia, and neighbouring countries that have killed thousands of people, including US citizens," the RFJ website reads.
Abdullahi is the second terror suspect linked to the Manda Bay attack to have a bounty placed on his head, following Maalim Ayman in 2023, who was offered a similar reward.
The January 5 attack, which saw approximately 30 to 40 militants launch mortar rounds and fire rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at the base, led to the deaths of four American soldiers. Al-Shabaab later claimed responsibility for the attack.
The airfield is used by the US armed forces to provide training and counterterrorism support to East African partners and to safeguard American interests in the region.
The US Department of State designated al-Shabaab as both a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) in March 2008.
Two years later, in April 2010, the United Nations Security Council's Somalia Sanctions Committee also listed Al-Shabaab under paragraph 8 of Resolution 1844 (2008).
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