MOGADISHU (Kaab TV) — Al-Shabaab’s spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage — known as Ali Dheere — has condemned the Somali government’s ongoing evictions in Mogadishu and dismissed the government’s military offensive as “a failed campaign”, in a video released by the group on Saturday, 20 September.
The footage, published by the group, was recorded during a graduation ceremony for a new batch of fighters enlisted into a unit named after Sheikh Muhamed Mire — a senior commander who served as the group’s finance boss and was linked to the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi and the 2019 DusitD2 attack. Mire was killed in a U.S. airstrike on 24 December 2024.
Dressed in Somali military camouflage and carrying an AK-47, Ali Dheere praised recruits who completed training at the “Sheikh Muhamed Mire” camp.
He addressed a masked, uniformed group of fighters — many in full combat gear and American-style boots — seated under trees’ shade in what appeared to be a dense southern Somalia forest.
The appearance comes days after Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) claimed it had killed Ali Dheere and several other senior al-Shabaab commanders.
The group’s video appears intended to refute those claims and show that Ali Dheere is alive.
In a roughly 29-minute speech, Ali Dheere invoked the Israel–Gaza war to argue that human-rights protections are failing in the Muslim world, before shifting focus to Mogadishu and the forced evictions of many civilian population in the capital.
“Take an example of what is going on today in Mogadishu. No single place was spared. Even schools, hospitals and public lands were looted,” he said. “Every day we see on the media women and elderly crying.”
Ali Dheere warned businessmen, soldiers, government officials and clan elders he accused of participating in the evictions, saying al-Shabaab “will not forgive them.”
He stated the group plans to establish an Islamic court to return what he described as looted land to its original owners and vowed that public lands would be preserved under the movement’s control.
Intelligence sources in Mogadishu told this reporter that some local clan elders have recently met with al-Shabaab commanders to complain about evictions they link to President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, his family, and Premier Bank, of which the president is reportedly a co-owner.
Those sources said some complaints have been referred to al-Shabaab courts after a loss of confidence in government judicial institutions.
Referring to the new recruits, Ali Dheere thanked Somali clans “for contributing their boys to the jihadi group.”
He also criticised the government’s counter-insurgency campaign, which began in 2022 and has since slowed, claiming al-Shabaab is retaking areas previously seized by government forces.
“I call all to be prepared to bring this fight to an end and finish the small portion that is remaining for us,” he said, reiterating the group’s long-term aim of establishing an Islamic republic in Somalia.
Somalia’s government and security officials have not yet issued an immediate response to the video.