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The Somali Transitional Federal Government has announced it will offer up to $500 for citizens who come forward with information leading to the arrest or killing of members of al-Shabaab.

The government said it expects the reward to garner interest from Somalis and encourage people to inform security services on the locations of the al-Qaeda-affiliated group's leaders.

"The transitional government continues its operations to employ strict measures to destroy strongholds of terrorism throughout the country and to reinforce its efforts to combat terrorism, while maintaining its targeting of al-Shabaab leaders and financiers of terrorism," the government said in a statement released April 18th.

This is the first time the government has offered a financial reward for information regarding the whereabouts of the group's leaders. The government promised anonymity for anyone who comes forward with useful information.

Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed Ahmed Nur said the government will give $100 for information on low ranking members of a-Shabaab and $500 for the group's leaders. "Al-Shabaab [fighters] are just like prey; we need to hunt them down and arrest them anywhere," Nur told residents of the city.

Nur also said there would be cash rewards for whoever provides information about hidden explosives in the city.

The rewards will encourage citizens to co-operate with security services in fighting extremist groups and terrorism, says retired Colonel Ibrahim Abdulqadir.

"When such a step is implemented, security services will be more citizen-friendly and the government will gain the public's trust," he told Sabahi. "Security services need people with information regarding the whereabouts of al-Shabaab [militants] that infiltrate and hide in society and among local residents in areas under the government's control -- whether in the capital, Mogadishu, or in the other recently liberated regions."

"The armed forces alone cannot eradicate al-Shabaab without support from the people. The public must play a big role in helping the police and the security forces," he said.

Abdulqadir called on the government to launch awareness campaigns for citizens so they can take part in establishing security and stability.

He described the cash rewards as an important step that should have come sooner.

"It would have been better if such rewards were offered immediately after the expulsion of al-Shabaab's militants from the capital, Mogadishu, last year so that security services could work with the public to cleanse the city from remnants of al-Shabaab as soon as possible," he said.

Political analyst Abdiqani Mohammed says the new step may strike fear in the hearts of al-Shabaab's leaders, in addition to winning the hearts of the Somali street.

Until now, many al-Shabaab leaders, with the exception of the leader of the movement Ali Ahmed Godane, have been openly roaming the areas under their control, he said.

Mohammed attributed the government's failure to detain or kill any of the group's prominent leaders to an absence of true collaboration between the government security agencies and the public.

"Al-Shabaab leaders appeared in areas close to Mogadishu, such as Elasha Biyaha, Afgoye and other locations," he said. "To allocate this new financial reward will create a sort of collaboration between the public and government security services, and will also strike fear in the hearts of al-Shabaab's leaders. Eventually, many key leaders of the group will be forced to limit their movements in public to avoid being identified and targeted by citizens."

Mohammed said that before al-Shabaab fighters were expelled from the capital, people were afraid to criticise the group, much less give information about its leaders' movements, because they were afraid of being identified by elements of the group's intelligence apparatus.

"Things have changed now, as people are much bolder in criticising al-Shabaab and its harsh practices," he said. "This is because the Somali people have long suffered severe treatment at the hands of this group, and they are now coming forward to co-operate with government security services by providing the required information."