MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News) – Somalia executed four government soldiers Thursday accused of killing colleagues as the government came under pressure to hold its forces to account for abuses and killings.
According to a court statement, the four soldiers who were attached to NISA, SNA and the police were found guilty of killing four soldiers from their divisions and were sentenced to death some months back.
“These four soldiers were guilty of killing their colleagues, so the court decided these men be executed in accordance with the laws of Islam and military court,” Mohamed Abdullahi Khalif, deputy military prosecutor told the media. “They will serve as a good example to all government forces, which should ensure reliable peace. This is to avoid killings and to safeguard our Somali people.”
The executed soldiers include Bukhari Awil Mohamed (NISA), Ali Mohamud Hussein ((SNA), Abdirisaq Ahmed Mukhtar (police), and Mohamed Sheikh Nur (police).
The Somali government previously executed dozens of soldiers and al-Shabaab convicts who were sentenced by the military court.
The armed forces have been recently accused of killing civilians and their colleagues in Mogadishu and other parts of the country.
Somalia has been struggling to rebuild its forces which were disintegrated in 1990 after the collapse of Somalia’s central Somalia led by the then-late Mohamed Siad Barre.
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