Authorities will request that the Democratic Republic of the Congo extradite a Kenyan who was detained in the country’s northern city of Beni on terror-related allegations.
Salim Rashid Mohamed, alias Chotara or Turki Salim, was apprehended by the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who accused him of being a member of the Allied Democratic Forces, which has been conducting operations in northern DRC near the Ugandan border.
Mohamed is a Mombasa inhabitant and a suspected terrorist, with an Sh10 million reward on his head.
He was detained on accusations of being a member of the infamous Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist rebel organization operating on the Uganda-DRC border.
He had also become a member of the Islamic State’s Central Africa Province (ISCAP).
Kenya will pursue his extradition since he is wanted on an active warrant, according to people familiar with the arrangements.
He is seen armed with a gun in one picture that has gone viral on the internet. He was also known as a beheader after being shown in an undated video killing a purported “Isis traitor” by a person presumed to be Salim.
The attackers are seen in the film wielding a machete and chanting in Swahili and Arabic that traitors must be murdered.
They’re all dressed in military fatigues and carrying machetes and weapons.
Several Kenyan teenagers from the Masjid Musa Mosque were last spotted in the DRC towns of Goma and Butembo after taking temporary unauthorized employment as truckers.
Salim recruited the kids and organized their logistics to DRC by hiring them as ‘turn-boys for trucks’ heading for Africa’s second-largest nation.
Freight forwarding firms controlled by Yemeni businesspeople are often used in terrorist activities.
He was freed on bail in 2020 on terrorist accusations, according to police, before going missing.
Salim, who had been involved in a number of illegal operations in Mombasa, is said to have joined the Islamic State in Mozambique around the time.
Salim can be seen in a video explaining to DRC inhabitants that he and two other accomplices were on their way to South Africa in the hopes of beginning afresh.
Kenyan authorities said they were aware of his incarceration and were awaiting formal word on his likely extradition.
Salim, 28, skipped bail in a terror-related case in 2021. His family claims to be unaware of his location. Friends, neighbors, and former classmates were taken aback when they saw him in an undated video of a person presumed to be Salim murdering an accused Isis traitor.
After receiving an A-minus in the 2014 KCSE, he was transferred to Turkey to study computer engineering, but he was subsequently deported. Salim went to Mozambique to join Isis before sneaking into the DRC.
In a probation report, he was characterized as a bright guy who squandered his life opportunities by engaging in a risky occupation.
Salim attended Qubaa Nursery in Mvita before moving on to Qubaa Primary School and then to Abu Hureira Academy, where he completed the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) test in 2010.
He enrolled at a private secondary school in Mombasa in 2011 and took his KCSE test four years later when he finished as one of the top students.
Salim was chosen to attend the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology but was declined.
He subsequently enrolled in the Technical University of Mombasa to study computer engineering but left out after just one year.
He eventually participated in a certificate degree in computer studies at Abraar Muslim School, following which he continued his studies in computer engineering at Istanbul Kultur University in Turkey.
Salim was deported from Turkey on suspicion of being an Isis member after being discovered at the border on his way to Syria.
In 2017, he was prosecuted for the offense at Shanzu Law Court but was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
In 2019, he was detained at Moi International Airport on suspicion of terrorism-related charges and charged in court. He was charged, along with others who were not present in court, with being a part of the al-Shabaab terrorist organization.
He was also charged with having components needed to manufacture improvised explosive devices in his possession.
He was discovered with twin stranded wires, batteries linked in series using a piece of carton tied by an elastic thread, inductor coils, black particles, and white explosive powder used in the construction of improvised explosive devices.
He was discovered carrying the materials on March 8, 2019, at Ngomeni in Kwale County, according to police.
Salim won Sh1.5 million bail with one surety of a comparable amount after Mombasa Senior Resident Magistrate Rita Amwayi decided the prosecution did not have adequate grounds to keep him in jail awaiting the completion of his case.
He subsequently went missing, and his absence was reported to authorities in December 2020. At that point, at least eight witnesses had testified in the case, and an arrest warrant had been issued.
Later, police apprehended Richard Lazarus Kivatsi, who had been talking with Salim, and another suspect, Alfan Ali Juma, who was supposed to be in Mozambique. The two allegedly fled to Mozambique after the judge granted them bail, according to police.
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