NAIROBI: British charity Save the Children has urged the Somali government to intervene after a military court sentenced four teenage boys to death over their involvement with armed groups.
Authorities in the north-central city of Galkayo arrested six teenagers in October 2020 and a military court last month sentenced four of the boys — now aged between 16 and 18 — to death, while the remaining two were sentenced to 30 and 20 years in jail, the group said.
“We are deeply concerned at these sentences. Sentencing adolescents to death and long-term imprisonment — regardless of their crime — does not work as a deterrent, and certainly isn’t in line with global standards,” Mohammed Mohamed Hassan, the charity’s country director for Somalia, said in a statement.
“The experience of being associated with an armed force or group can have an immediate and lasting impact and consequences for boys and girls, including exploitation and abuse, physical injury or disability. They must be protected, not punished,” he added.
“These boys deserve a chance at rehabilitation, and we urge the government to ensure justice.”
The charity said the court’s decision violated the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Somalia ratified in 2015.
Although Somalia has been known to carry out executions of adult prisoners, no details were available on the executions of juvenile offenders.
Save the Children did not give details about the armed groups in the case of the teenagers.
Save the Children urges Somalia to protect teens from execution
https://arab.news/pg9z2
Save the Children urges Somalia to protect teens from execution
Syria accuses Hezbollah of firing shells into its territory
- “The Syrian Arab Army will not tolerate any aggression targeting Syria,” the army said in a statement to SANA
DAMASCUS: Syria said Iran-backed Hezbollah had fired artillery shells into its territory from Lebanon overnight, state media reported on Tuesday, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Shia movement.
Syrian army officials said artillery shells fired from Lebanon landed near the town of Serghaya, west of Damascus, the state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday.
The army accused Hezbollah of targeting Syrian army positions, telling the news agency it observed Hezbollah reinforcements at the Syrian-Lebanese border.
“The Syrian Arab Army will not tolerate any aggression targeting Syria,” the army said in a statement to SANA.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have clashed in eastern Lebanon in recent days, and Israel has carried out strikes across Lebanon, including on the capital Beirut.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Hezbollah of working to “collapse” the state, while the head of the group’s parliamentary bloc said it had “no other option... than the option of resistance.”
Hezbollah provided military support to former Syrian president Bashar Assad, who was overthrown in December 2024 by an Islamist coalition hostile to the pro-Iranian Shia movement.
Since then, its supply routes from Syria have been cut off, and Lebanese and Syrian authorities are trying to combat smuggling across the porous border between the two countries.
