The Somali government stated on Monday that another co-founder of Shabaab is dead. The individual, identified as Mahmoud Abdi Hamud, better known as Jaafar Gurey, was reportedly killed in a “precision airstrike” on October 26 in Bu’aale, a town in Somalia’s Middle Juba region that is a significant stronghold of the Al Qaeda branch.
According to the Somali press statement, “Jaafar Gurey was among the founding members of the Al-Shabaab extremist network” and “was a close associate of the group’s successive leaders, Ahmed Abdi Godane and Ahmed Diriye.” The Somali government also alleges that Gurey “held several senior positions within the group, including Head of External Security, Head of Leadership Security, and Head of Intelligence Tracking.”
Shabaab has yet to comment on the report of Gurey’s death as of the time of publishing. The group sometimes does not confirm the deaths of its leaders.
Somalia did not state who conducted the “precision airstrike,” but the information provided likely comports with a reported US airstrike on October 26. According to the US military’s Africa Command (AFRICOM), it conducted an airstrike against Shabaab “in the vicinity of Janaale, Somalia, 40 km north of Kismayo.” While AFRICOM is incorrect about the specific town, “40km north of Kismayo” would be in the direction of Bu’aale, though still significantly south of it.
No other airstrike in this general area and on that day has been publicly reported.
Gurey had been the subject of a $3 million bounty from the US State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program (RFJ) since 2014. In RFJ’s poster for the Shabaab leader, it notes, “Jafar [sic] [Gurey] is an al-Shabaab facilitator and operational planner, who has served as a deputy to Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, also known as Ikrima.” In addition, RFJ states that he “also serves as al-Shabaab’s chief of explosives and is responsible for attack operations in Mogadishu.”
If confirmed, Gurey would be the most recent Shabaab senior leader reported killed since the death of Mohamed Mire in late 2024. Mire, who was essentially Shabaab’s interior minister for its shadow governance project, was killed in a US airstrike in the Middle Juba region. Mire had a long history in the Somali jihad, dating back to the early 1990s.
Prior to Mire, another co-founder of Shabaab, Abdullahi Yare, was killed in late 2022. Yare, also known as Abdullahi Nadir, was also killed in the Middle Juba region by a US airstrike. At the time of his reported death, Yare was acting as the emir of Shabaab’s dawah [proselytizing] wing. Shabaab has never confirmed the death of Yare, though no new information on the co-founder has emerged since he was reported killed.
Over the last few years, Somalia has killed several mid-to-low-level commanders of Shabaab across much of central and southern Somalia. However, most of the jihadist group’s senior leadership remains intact. Other reported deaths of significant Shabaab commanders have turned out to be incorrect.
For instance, in December 2023, Somalia claimed that it killed Maalim Ayman, the leader of the eponymously named Jaysh Ayman, a Shabaab wing responsible for attacks in northeastern Kenya and southern Somalia. However, a United Nations Sanctions and Monitoring Team report from July 2024 reported that Ayman was still alive and operational.
If Jaafar Gurey is confirmed dead, it would be yet another blow to the group’s senior leadership and its remaining historical cadres. However, as made evident by Shabaab’s blitz across Middle Shabelle earlier this year and its prison assault just this month, the group’s leadership losses do not necessarily equate to a decline in military capability.
