KISMAYO– Reports coming from Kismayo town, the interim administrative capital of Somalia’s Jubbaland State say police have arrested a 37 year old man who is accused of murdering his biological mother.
The man identified as Hassan Abdullahi Abdi Shire left his mother, Halima Hassan Omar with serious injuries on her upper torso before she was rescued by neighbours who heard her incessant cries.
Confirming the incident to the media , Kismayo police chief said they were able to successfully apprehend the suspect adding that he will be arraigned in court very soon.
According to the police, the man locked himself in the room with his mother in Farjanno district before starting to knife her leaving her with serious injuries.
“The suspect locked him and his mother inside the house they were living before committing the atrocious act of murdering his mother” said the Police boss.
The police commissioner said the man was repatriated from the diaspora recently by his mother in a common phenomena among the Somalis called Dhaqan Celis loosely translated as ” return to culture” in the hope of rehabilitation and change of behaviour.
The mother was pronounced dead upon arrival in one of the hospitals and was buried according to Islamic rituals.
It was not immediately clear why Shire killed his mother.
This is not the first time such bizarre occurrence happened in the Somalia, a country reeling from decades of civil war and chaos.
In June 2020, Farah Abdi Mohamed killed his mother in Jalam area in Somalia’s Puntland State. He was later executed in a firing squad in October 2020 after the regional court in Garowe found him guilty.
Somalia is among a few African countries that still hands death sentences to offenders.
Most of the other African countries switched to life imprisonment instead of death.