KISMAYO, Somalia — Suspected Islamic extremists in Somalia shot a Christian to death in February on the outskirts of the coastal city of Kismayo, sources said.
Two masked men killed Ahmed Ali Jimale, a 42-year-old father of four, Feb. 18 at 1 p.m. as he stood outside his house in Alanley village, near a police station, they said. The killers were suspected to be members of the Islamic extremist Al Shabaab, a rebel militia ousted from the area in November 2012 but still engaging in hit-and-run tactics. A few of the four rival clans in Kismayo, 328 miles southwest of Mogadishu, are said to be housing members of Al Shabaab.
A businessman, teacher and medical consultant well-known in the area, Jimale ran a pharmacy in Kismayo. He would give private lessons on medicine and first aid, and as an underground Christian — as are all Christians in Somalia — he highlighted the teaching with discussions comparing the Bible and the Quran, sources said.
The students would share these lessons with other children, and this teaching, along with his close work with a non-governmental organization that provides aid, appeared to have caught the attention of the Al Shabaab extremists, said a source who worked with Jimale but is no longer in the area.
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