Kenyan fundraiser for Somalia's Shebab killed

Aug 27, 2012 15:09 Moscow Time


Photo: AFP

Kenyan Islamist cleric Aboud Rogo Mohammed, on US and UN sanction lists for allegedly supporting Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab, was shot dead Monday in the port city of Mombasa, a police source said.

"He has been shot dead, he was in a vehicle with his family including wife and children when they were attacked," the source told AFP, adding Mohammed was killed in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.


"We have been told of a shooting incident.... We will give you details once we get a report from there," said regional deputy police chief Joseph Kitur.

Mohammed was placed on a US sanctions list in July for "engaging in acts that directly or indirectly threaten the peace, security or stability of Somalia", specifically for recruiting and fundraising for the hardline Shebab.

The United Nations Security Council placed a travel ban and asset freeze on the cleric in July, saying he had provided "financial, material, logistical or technical support to Al-Shebab".

He was the "main ideological leader" of Kenya's Al Hijra group, also known as the Muslim Youth Center (MYC), the UN said in July. The group is viewed as a close ally of the Shebab in Kenya.

Mohammed "used the extremist group as a pathway for radicalisation and recruitment of principally Swahili-speaking Africans for carrying out violent militant activity in Somalia," the UN said.

The MYC said in messages posted on Twitter that they were trying to confirm his death.

"We will take our time in responding and we won't over-react" the group said in one message, before adding, "if true, kuffar (unbelievers) will pay."

AFP