A senior Al-Shabab member wounded in a security operation by the Somali army last month on the border between the Lower and Middle Shabelle regions died from his severe wounds in Middle Jubba’s Jilib town, the government said in a statement.
According to the Somali government statement, Mohamed Hassan Omar, alias Abu Abdirahman, served as a senior figure in the group and was responsible for misleading youth.
Al-Shabaab confirmed the death of their former Banadir leader in a statement but said that Omar had succumbed to an unspecified illness.
“The sheikh has been suffering from illness for the last few days, and he passed away in Jilib district in the Islamic province of Juba.”
Abu Abdirahman is the second senior al-Shabab official to be assassinated in the last two months. Hundreds of villages have been liberated by government forces and local clan militia forces during the recent offensive, with over a thousand militants killed in the last six months.
In October, the country’s information ministry revealed that Abdullahi Nadir, one of the co-founders of the armed group al-Shabab, was killed in a US airstrike. Nadir was reportedly tapped to replace the group’s supposedly ailing leader, Ahmed Diriye.
