Woman Executed In Somalia for Beating Teen Domestic Help to Death

In a rare application of the death penalty against a woman in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region, authorities carried out the execution of 34-year-old Hodan Mohamud Diiriye by firing squad on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, in Galkayo.

Diiriye was convicted of beating to death 14-year-old Saabirin Saylaan, a teenager who worked as a domestic help in her household. The killing occurred in November 2025 and involved prolonged abuse, sparking widespread outrage and protests in Galkayo demanding better child protection measures.

The sentence was enforced under qisas, an Islamic legal principle of retributive justice that allows the victim's family to demand execution instead of accepting financial compensation (diya). A local decree in the Mudug region, where the crime took place, mandates the application of Islamic law in such cases.

Both families of the victim and the convicted woman were present during the execution, according to Mudug Governor Faysal Sheikh Ali.

Puntland officials stated this was the first time in over a decade that a woman had been executed under a qisas sentence in the region. The last known execution of a woman there was in 2013, when 13 al-Shabab militants, including one woman, were executed for the killing of a prominent Islamic scholar.

The case has renewed attention on child rights and domestic abuse in Somalia, where such incidents frequently remain hidden due to cultural and social factors.