Somalia announces $2m bounty for al-Shabaab leader

Mogadishu - A 2-million-dollar bounty is in place for information leading to the capture of the new leader of the al-Shabaab terrorist group in Somalia, announced the country's intelligence chief on Saturday.

Ahmed Umar, also known as Abu Ubaidah, became the head of the new group after Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in a US airstrike in southern Somalia earlier this month.

It is the first time the Somali government has announced a bounty for an al-Shabaab leader.

Abdiraham Mohamud Turyare, the country's national security intelligence chief, promised absolute secrecy to anyone who provides "credible information" about Umar's whereabouts.

He said the payment would come whether Umar was taken dead or alive.

Al-Shabaab is an insurgent group seeking an Islamist state in Somalia.

It controlled most of southern and central Somalia and parts of Mogadishu in 2009-2010, but has been driven out of key cities since then.