In an unprecedented move, the United States of America on Monday posted up to $23 million in rewards to help track down five leaders of militant groups accused of spreading terror in West Africa.

The highest reward of $7 million is offered for the Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, who last week called on Islamists in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to join the bloody fight to create an Islamic state in Nigeria. Shekau has a subsisting N50m bounty on his head also by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The US State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program also targeted Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), offering its first ever bounties for wanted militants in West Africa.

Up to $5 million was posted for Al-Qaeda veteran Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the one-eyed Islamist behind the devastating attack on an Algerian gas plant in January in which 37 foreigners, including three Americans, were killed.

A further $5 million was offered for top AQIM leader Yahya Abou Al-Hammam, reportedly involved in the 2010 murder of an elderly French hostage in Niger...CONTINUE: http://crimefacts.org/23m-bounty-on-boko-haram-leader-shekau-four-others-and-the-niger-drone-base-connection/