Jilib (Somalia Today) – Al-Shabaab militants publicly executed five men by firing squad in southern Somalia on Sunday after accusing them of spying for the United States and the Somali government, the group’s media said.
The militants carried out the killings in a public square in Jilib, their main stronghold in the Middle Juba region, about 380 kilometres (230 miles) south of the capital, Mogadishu.
The Al-Qaeda-linked group forced hundreds of residents to gather and watch, a tactic it has repeatedly used to intimidate communities under its control.
An insurgent judge read out the sentences through a loudspeaker and said the five men had admitted to “espionage” and “apostasy” — labels the group often uses against civilians it suspects of cooperating with its enemies.
‘Human intelligence’
The group accused the five young men of providing actionable information to US and Somali security agencies.
According to the militants, this intelligence allegedly facilitated airstrikes and targeted operations against Al-Shabaab positions.
The militants accused Hassan Ali Mohamed, 29, of supplying information that helped direct US drone strikes and other operations in the Middle Shabelle region over a two-year period. The group claimed his information contributed to attacks on its positions.
The militants also accused Hassan Mohamed Adam, known as “Hassan Boyow,” of working for US intelligence in the Juba regions and passing information to contacts in Mogadishu for nearly two years. The group said that the information contributed to the arrest of 12 suspected operatives.
The group accused Adam Siraji Abdullahi, 24, of working with US and Somali intelligence for about a year in the Middle Shabelle region.
The militants accused Ibrahim Yusuf Haji, 29, of passing information on militant positions to US intelligence agencies for two years.
The group accused Said Mohamed Ali, 23, also known as “Said Love,” of collaborating with US and Somali intelligence for eight months in the Lower Shabelle region.
No fair trial
Independent sources could not verify the accusations, and rights groups say Al-Shabaab’s “courts” fail to meet basic standards of due process.
However, reports from former detainees and rights monitors say militants often extract confessions under duress, including torture.
“The victims do not have access to lawyers, and these so-called ‘trials’ usually serve as summary proceedings the group uses to justify killings for propaganda purposes,” Mogadishu-based security analyst Yusuf Hussein told Somalia Today.
Sunday’s executions fit a broader pattern of intimidation and internal purges by the group.
The militants have grown increasingly suspicious of “human intelligence” — local informants who can help make US airstrikes more precise, including strikes that have targeted senior figures.
Witnesses and local reporting described similar public killings in July 2024, when the group executed five men in Jamame, and in January 2024, when it executed seven men in Jilib on espionage accusations.
In October 2018, the militants executed five men, including a British citizen, in the same town.
Al-Shabaab has waged an insurgency against Somalia’s central government for more than 20 years.
Jilib is the de facto capital of the insurgency and the only major urban centre fully under Al-Shabaab’s control, which limits independent verification.
The group frequently kills civilians it accuses of disloyalty or cooperation with the government, and it uses public punishments to reinforce its rule through fear.
