Two men who gang-raped and killed a 12-year-old girl in Somalia are publicly executed by firing squad chosen by girl's father

Aisha Ilyaas Aden was abducted at a market, raped and strangled to death near her home in Galkayo, Puntland region, in February last year.

Abdifatah Abdirahman Warsame and Abdishakur Mohamed Dige were both shot in Bossasso town square, on Somalia's north coast, after they were found guilty of the shocking attack.

Aisha's father Ilyaas Aden said he appointed their executioners and asked them for forgiveness by phone before they were killed today.

He even said he walked over to make sure they were dead after viewing the execution.

He is also alleged to have delayed the execution of Warsame's brother, Abdisalam Abdirahman, who had also been found guilty of the crimes, by at least ten days so that his case can be re-evaluated.

The case sparked uproar and demonstrations across the country, and an online protest using #JusticeForAisha.

He attended the execution today with officials and members of the public, reports Mustaqbal radio.

'Sexual violence is sadly not a shocking occurrence in Puntland,' Hawa Aden Mohamed, founder of the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development, which promotes women's rights, said in February. 'For years it has been relatively common place.'

'Aisha's is a truly tragic case, which has resonated very deeply here in Puntland. I hope it will shake things up. The seemingly never-ending violence against women and girls, where men can evade any responsibility for what they do, has to end.'

Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region passed the country's first Sexual Offences Law in 2016, which criminalises rape, sexual harassment and online sexual offences.

Under the law, five men who gang raped a teenage girl - with a video of the attack posted on social media - were sentenced in 2017 to lashes and up to 10 years in prison, according to the United Nations.

Campaigners say police are either unaware of violence of women or do not see it as a serious crime, which deters women from reporting abuse.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cinema of Somalia

Image
Cinema of Somalia  Storytelling is an ancient custom in Somali culture. Love of cinema in Somalia is but a modern, visual incarnation and continuation of this well-established oral tradition. The earliest forms of public film display in Somalia were Italian newsreels of key events during the colonial period in Italian Somaliland. Examples of such works include Somalia: Gheledi (1913), Somalia italiana (1913), Somalia: Le bellezze del fiume Nebi (1913), Sotto la Croce del Sud - Somalia Italiana (1926), Visioni della Somalia italiana (1929) and Viaggio di S.M. il Re in Somalia (1934) In the late 1950s there was some collaboration between Rome's Cinecitta and the first Somali directors. As a consequence, in 1963 Hajji Cagakombe's Miyi Iyo Magaalo ("The Countryside and the City" or "Town & Village"), a Somali-Italian co-production, was the country's first full-length feature film Somaliwood A new generation of more entertainment-o
Read more

Heavy fighting erupts in Somali town near Kenyan border

Image
  Heavy fighting broke out overnight in a Somali town near the Kenyan border between Somali forces and those from the state of Jubbaland, as Somalia’s election troubles spill over into violence. Somalia’s information ministry in a statement early Monday accused Kenya-funded rebels of crossing into the town of Bulo Hawo and attacking Somali forces. But the Jubbaland vice president, Mohamud Sayid Adan, told reporters that Jubbaland forces stationed outside the town were attacked by what he called forces recently deployed to the region by the government in the capital, Mogadishu. Both sides claimed victory. The information ministry asserted that Somali forces were in control of the town and that nearly 100 of the suspected rebels had surrendered to Somali forces. But Information Minister Osman Abokor Dubbe later told reporters that five children had been killed and their mother wounded when a mortar round landed on their house. “Ordinary militias don't have mortars and missiles,” the
Read more

Somali Prime Minister announces new cabinet

Image
  Somalia's new prime minister announced his new Cabinet on Monday evening in the capital Mogadishu.  Speaking at the presidential palace flanked by his new ministers, Mohamed Hussein Roble said the new Cabinet consists of a deputy prime minister and 26 ministers, including four women. Fifteen of the new ministers (over 50%) are from the previous Cabinet, with Deputy Prime Minister Khadar Mohamed Gulaid, Finance Minister Abdirahman Duale Beyleh, Foreign Minister Ahmed Isse Awad, and Health Minister Fowzia Abiikar Nur all holding onto their posts. The new Cabinet also includes 17 state ministers and 26 deputy ministers. The new cabinet will need approval from the federal parliament. On Sept. 18, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed appointed Roble the country's new prime minister after parliament ousted Hassan Ali Khayre, his predecessor. The new prime minister and his Cabinet will have a brief mandate, as the Horn of African country's presidential and parliamentary elections
Read more