Death Penalty News

MOGADISHU, Feb 16, 2026 – The Somali federal government on Monday executed two men convicted of orchestrating a series of deadly assassinations and bombings in the capital, judicial officials confirmed. The executions, carried out by a firing squad following sentences handed down by the Armed Forces Court, took place early Monday morning in Mogadishu. The two individuals were identified as Hassan Ali Iftin Buule (known as Gacmey) and Hassan Ali Ibrahim Mohamed Ahmed (known by the aliases Baari, Biibaaye, and Sa’ad). Both had been found guilty of participating in terror attacks that resulted in the death and injury of numerous Somali civilians.

On a beach in the Somali capital, Mogadishu stand six tall concrete posts planted in the pure white sand. The waves of the bright blue Indian Ocean break gently nearby - and often bear witness to some grim events. Every so often the security forces bring men to this place, tie them to the posts with plastic ropes, place black hoods over their heads and shoot them dead. The members of the specially trained firing squad also have their faces hidden.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden raised its terror alert to the second-highest level on Thursday after a string of public desecrations of the Quran sparked angry demonstrations across Muslim countries and threats from militant groups. The Swedish Security Service, known as SÄPO, lifted the “terror threat level” one notch to “high,” the fourth of five levels, for the first time since 2016. The move reflects Swedish concerns that repeated Quran-burnings this year by a handful of anti-Islam activists have made the Scandinavian country a prime target for Islamic extremists.

Five Ugandan soldiers serving with African Union troops in Somalia have been found guilty of killing seven civilians there in August. Two of the soldiers have been sentenced to death, while three others have been given 39-year prison sentences. The three will be repatriated to Uganda to serve their sentences there. The civilians were unlawfully killed during a gun battle in Golweyn between its troops and al-Shabab militants, the AU says. The AU's Amisom force has been in Somalia for 14 years. It has been fighting the al-Shabab Islamists who retain a stronghold on parts of the country. Almost a third of Amisom's 20,000 troops are from Uganda - making it the biggest national contingent. Saturday's court martial ruling by Uganda comes a month after the AU announced it wanted to expand its military operation in Somalia, pending approval from the UN and the Somali government. "Our mission in Somalia is to degrade al-Shabab and other armed groups. In doing so, we absolutely...

Twenty-one men have been executed in Somalia's semi-autonomous state of Puntland after they were convicted of being members of the Islamist militant group al-Shabab. They were sentenced by a military court in Galkayo and shot by a firing squad. State radio said 18 of the men had carried out assassinations and bombings over more than a decade. As they were being executed the group attacked a town in another part of Somalia, reportedly killing soldiers. Similar death sentences have been handed down by courts in other parts of Somalia before. But this is reported to be the largest number of executions of al-Shabab members ever in Puntland. RELATED | Who are Somalia's al-Shabab? The authorities in Puntland had vowed to bring to justice any members of al-Shabab or people found assisting the group in its attacks. The BBC's Africa editor Will Ross says the Islamist group still poses a huge threat to Somalia's stability. Al-Shabab controls much of the country's southern and...

14 June 2021 : The military Supreme Court in the semi-autonomous Somali regional state of Puntland on 13 June 2021 sentenced 17 men to death in Galkayo. The court also sentenced 18-year-old Abdirizak Ahmed Burale to life in prison, according to a court ruling. All of the men are suspected of belonging to the militant insurgency group Al-Shabaab. The men are accused of carrying out hundreds of killings as part of an active assassination cell operating in Puntland for 13 years.  The majority of the group's victims were in northern Galkayo. The victims included government officers and private civilians. The men had previously been sentenced to death by the Puntland Military Court, but they appealed and hired lawyers to defend them. The Puntland government says that the convictions will deal a heavy blow to Al-Shabaab's operations in the region. Source:  Hiiraan online, Arlaadi news, Staff, June 14, 2021 🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle...

Somali militant group al-Shabab has executed 18 people since Wednesday, an unprecedented rate of executions for the group, which is under pressure from U.S. airstrikes. Militants put to death 4 people in the southern town of Jamame on Sunday, immediately after the judge in an al-Shabab court declared them guilty. Firing squads shot and killed 2 men accused of being Somali government soldiers and a woman accused of being a spy for Kenya. The militants identified the woman as 20-year-old Iqra Abdi Aden. Afterward, an 18-year-old man, Nur Bakar Jirow, was publicly stoned to death for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl. The man argued the sex was consensual, but the judge said he deserved the death penalty because he was married at the time. On Saturday, al-Shabab firing squads killed 3 men accused of being Somali government soldiers in the town of Kurtunwarey in the Lower Shabelle region. In Buale town of the neighboring Middle Jubba region, the militants executed a ma...

5 African countries applied the death penalty in 2018, a report by international rights group Amnesty International revealed on Wednesday. Of the quintet, 4 were in sub-Saharan Africa and 1 in north Africa region. Egypt was the only country up the Sahara to apply the measure. They are classed in the Middle East and North Africa, MENA, region; according to the report. In Sub-Saharan Africa: Botswana, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan used the measure. Somalia being the main user due to the incidence of terrorism related crimes by military courts against Al-Shabaab insurgents. As numbers dropped in Somalia, they were on their way up in South Sudan, the report said. Most of these sentences were related to violent crimes amid a country embroiled in a security crisis. Most African countries still have the death sentence on the law books and judges continue to pass such judgments. They are however not enforced with convicts usually having their sentences commuted to life impr...

The High Court in Botswana on Thursday started hearing an application seeking to decriminalize homosexuality, in a landmark case for Africa’s legal response to same-sex relationships. Botswana is touted as one of Africa’s most democratic nations, yet homosexuality is outlawed under the country’s penal code of 1965. An unnamed applicant is challenging two sections of that code under which offenders face a jail sentence of up to seven years. “These sections… limit me to interact with others who identify in the same way for fear of imprisonment,” said the applicant in documents read by lawyer Gosego Lekgowe in the High Court in Gaborone. “We are not looking for people to agree with homosexuality but to be tolerant,” said the applicant identified by their initials LM. Scrapping the relevant laws would help gays and lesbians to more easily access health care and treatment, and “will also affirm basic human rights and the diversity of the Botswana nation”, said the arg...

Authorities in Somalia have executed two assassins associated with insurgent group, Al-Shabaab.  The duo were convicted by a military court of murdering a traditional chief. Hassan Ali Hassan, 25, and Abdirahman Isse Ali, 22, were executed in the capital Mogadishu, the military confirmed on Monday. They were captured by the police in early November 2016 when they tried fleeing the scene of the murder of the traditional chief, Hilowle Heefow Hussein. The latest execution comes two weeks after a military court executed via firing squad a serial Al-Shabaab bomber, Abdul Kadir Shaa’ir.  The 41-year-old had been convicted of a series of bombings in 2017. Somalia remains one of a handful of African countries that still apply the death penalty despite a hard fightback by activists. Most African countries have the measure on their law books but they are hardly enforced.  Most death penalties are commuted to life imprisonment. Source: africane...

Somalia on Sunday executed by firing squad a man linked to one of the country's deadliest ever attacks, one year after the tragedy which left over 500 dead, a court statement and police sources said.  Hundreds of Somalis gathered at a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the attack in which a truck packed with explosives blew up at a busy intersection, destroying some 20 buildings in an apocalyptic scene in a city used to regular explosions at the hands of Islamist group Al-Shabaab. A year on, the Al-Qaeda linked group which still governs large swaths of territory, has never claimed responsibility, which observers attribute to the public outrage caused by the attack. To coincide with the anniversary, a military court announced early Sunday morning that a member of the team involved in the attack, had been executed. Hassan Adan Isak, was sentenced to death for "driving one of the vehicles used in the blast," read a statement from the court. "Toda...

Somalia's al Shabaab Islamists on Tuesday shot 5 men in a public execution, including a Somali British citizen accused of spying, a sign of the insurgents' control of southern swathes of the country, even as authorities step up efforts to combat them. Al Shabaab's grip on the Horn of Africa nation has been weakening since it was pushed out of the capital by African Union peacekeepers in 2011, but the government and the U.S. military are beefing up an offensive against it. "5 of them were publicly shot to death this afternoon after they admitted espionage before the court," said Mohamed Abu Abdalla, al Shabaab's governor for the Jubba regions. "Awale Ahmed Mohamed, 32 spied for MI6 and he came from Britain to Somalia to establish Islamic State," he told Reuters late on Tuesday. 3 of the men spied for the United States and helped guide drones to carry out strikes in Somalia, while a 4th spied for the Somali government, he added. ...

Somali military court on Wednesday sentenced three al-Shabab militants to death after they were found guilty of being behind the hotel bombing in October last year, officials said. Chairperson of the Military Court, Hassan Ali Nur Shute, said the militants admitted to charges of carrying out attack on Nasa-hablod II Hotel in which more than 30 people were killed and several others injured. “The Court heard the cases of three terrorist militants in several sessions and found them guilty of carrying out attack on Hotel Nasa-hablod II attack on October 28, 2017, therefore the court sentenced Farhan Samatar, Abdinasir Hassan and Abshir  Haji to death,” Shute said. Somali government’s military court often gives death penalties against al-Shabab militants and some soldiers. But human rights groups including the UN and the EU have condemned these executions. The EU says it considers the death penalty to be a cruel and inhuman punishment, which fails to provide deter...