The deaths of three women in one week, all allegedly murdered by their husbands, has caused outrage in Somalia and sparked days of protests over the country’s femicide rates.
Police have named the suspects in all three killings, which took place in the first week of February, as the dead women’s husbands. Two of the victims were pregnant. Even in a country where – after more than three decades of conflict – death and violence are part of everyday life, there have been demonstrations in the capital, Mogadishu, with protesters holding up placards showing photos of Lul Abdi Aziz Jazirain her hospital bed. The 28-year-old had been doused with petrol and set alight. She suffered severe burns and survived in agony for seven days after being attacked.
Her brother, Amudi Abdi Aziz Jazira, said neighbours had heard a “ferocious argument” and later broken down a locked door to reach the badly burned woman and take her to hospital.
Jazira, 28, was a widow with six children when she met her second husband at the airport in Mogadishu where she worked.
“I thought they were a happy couple,” said her brother.
A police spokesperson, Sadiq Dudishe, said the suspect had gone to an area where there was heavy fighting between the government and the Islamist group Al-Shabaab, which has controlled much of Somalia for 17 years.
“This made it difficult to catch him,” said Dudishe. “The intense insecurity meant it took time for us to find and arrest him.” A man is now in custody in Mogadishu.
In the southern district of Qoryoley, Saleban Haji Abdi has been arrested and charged with stabbing 22-year-old Fus Mahfud Mohamed to death. He is alleged to have attacked his wife of seven years, who was pregnant with her fourth child, on 3 February.
Mohamed’s father, Mahfud Mohamed Haji, said disputes between the couple had been previously dealt with by their families through Somali customary law known as xeer.