Tuesday August 12, 2025
Mogadishu (HOL) — Somalia’s military court on Monday
executed two former government soldiers convicted of working with the extremist
group al-Shabaab to assassinate their battalion commander by planting a bomb
under his bed.
The men were sentenced to death in August after being found
guilty of killing Major Aidiid Mohamed Ali, commander of the 83rd Battalion, in
July. Prosecutors said one soldier received the explosive device while the
other placed it beneath the commander’s bed before it was remotely detonated.
“They were executed today for their involvement in the
assassination of Commander Aidiid Mohamed Ali,” prosecutor Hassan Siyad Mohamed
said.
Liban Ali Yarrow, chairman of Somalia’s supreme military
court, warned that anyone with proven links to al-Shabaab would face the same
fate. “One day God will expose you, and you will come out, and we will find you
and execute you by firing squad,” he said.
The executions by firing squad come just days after Somali
forces, working alongside Ugandan troops from the African Union Transition
Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), recaptured the strategic town of Bariire in the
Lower Shabelle region from al-Shabaab.
The al-Qaeda-linked group has been waging a deadly
insurgency in Somalia since 2007, targeting government forces, African Union
troops, and civilians through suicide bombings, assassinations, and armed
assaults.