A mother of two and her cousin were publicly executed by beheading on March 4 after al-Shabaab militants found out they were Christians.
Residents were called to witness the executions of Sadia and Osman. Sadia’s two daughters, aged 8 and 15, were among those subjected to the gruesome spectacle; the youngest cried out for someone to save her mother. The girls have been left orphans as their father died after falling ill in 2011. Fearing for their safety, a family friend has helped them to relocate to a different area.
One resident said that an al-Shabaab militant announced before the killings: ‘We know these two people are Christians who recently came back from Kenya. We want to wipe out any underground Christian living inside of a mujahidin area’.
Al-Shabaab, which is said to have spies throughout Somalia, became suspicious of Sadia and Osman because of their irregular attendance at the mosque for Friday prayers. Having lived in Christian-majority Kenya, the pair would have been treated with extra suspicion. Sadia returned to Somalia in January 2013, having lived in Eastleigh on the outskirts of Nairobi for seven years. Osman, who helped take care of Sadia’s daughters, came with her.
