Tuesday April 8, 2025

Somalia’s Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Dahabo Suusow, speaks to reporters at Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital in Mogadishu on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, addressing speculation surrounding the death of former military officer Sheegow Ahmed Ali. Suusow, a relative of the deceased, urged the public to remain calm and rejected claims that Sheegow had been poisoned. 

Mogadishu (HOL) — Somalia’s Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Dahabo Suusow, has urged the public to remain calm and dismissed speculation that a former military officer who died in custody earlier this week was poisoned. Her comments come as government officials and family members work to tamp down growing rumours following the death of Sheegow Ahmed Ali, widely known as “General Sheegow.”

“There is no one who poisoned or killed General Sheegow,” Suusow told reporters Tuesday at Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital, where Sheegow’s body remains. “He passed by the will of God. Doctors have confirmed that his death was due to liver complications.”

Suusow, who is also a relative of the deceased, said she met with the hospital’s doctors alongside Sheegow’s parents and was assured that his death resulted from long-term liver failure linked to hepatitis. She confirmed that Sheegow will be buried in Mogadishu on Wednesday and rejected a request to transfer his body to Jowhar. “There should be no unrest. This is not the time for division,” she added.

Her comments echo earlier statements from Health Minister Dr. Ali Haji Aden, who said on Monday that Sheegow died after being hospitalized for liver complications caused by hepatitis B. “He had been in intensive care. The hospital confirmed the disease had affected his liver and progressed to cancer,” Aden noted.

Sheegow died Monday night while serving a 10-year sentence handed down by a Somali military court in November 2023. He had been convicted following an August 2023 clash between federal security forces and an armed group loyal to him in Mogadishu’s Dharkenley district. Government officials said his forces had looted civilians, prompting a military response that ended with Sheegow and 25 of his fighters taken into custody.

Although widely referred to as “General Sheegow,” his official military status has long been contested. Former police spokesperson Capt. Sadiiq Aden Doodishe told the BBC that Sheegow had only held the rank of captain when he was discharged from the Somali National Army. “The government reviewed his file and confirmed that he was registered as a captain,” Doodishe said. “He wore a general’s uniform but was never officially promoted.”

However, more recent statements from government officials and military sources have referred to him as a general, adding to public confusion about his rank.

Sheegow’s military career was marked by controversy and shifting allegiances. In 2014, he defected from the al-Shabaab militant group after reportedly falling out with its leadership in Lower Shabelle. He had been stationed in Janaale and Bariire, where he was tasked with collecting funds for the group. After his defection, Sheegow surrendered to the Somali government and was integrated into the military with the rank of captain—a decision that remained divisive within the security establishment.

By 2017, Sheegow was commanding troops at the Bariire military base in Lower Shabelle. In an interview with the BBC that year, he said his unit had repelled an al-Shabaab attack, killing 18 militants. However, his command style and continued loyalty from independent fighters would later raise concerns among officials.

Though no longer part of the formal command structure, Sheegow continued to lead armed fighters who operated outside the national army. It was this militia, accused of looting civilians, that triggered the fatal clash with federal forces last year.

He was also reportedly affiliated with Badbaado Qaran (National Salvation), a political faction that opposed then-President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo during the country’s 2021 constitutional crisis.

Following his death, community leaders from the Jareerweyne clan, to which Sheegow belonged, urged the public to avoid inflaming tensions. In a joint statement issued Monday night, Sheegow’s family said they were “satisfied with the hospital’s findings” and called on others to avoid “creating unnecessary confusion.”

Former Somali presidents Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed have expressed condolences and urged transparency in the treatment of detainees. “We call on the president to investigate the conditions surrounding the officer’s death and to address the concerns raised by his family,” Farmaajo wrote on Facebook.

Sheegow will be buried at the Somali National Army Hospital in Mogadishu on Wednesday.