The Somali militant group al-Shabab has purportedly executed a Ugandan soldier who had been held captive since September, 2015, according to a video released by the group.
The video posted by the group purports to show the soldier being executed with two gunshots to the head.
Before the execution, the group apparently forced the soldier to make a statement saying that Ugandan soldiers came to Somalia “just for the money”. The soldier then urges other Ugandan soldiers to stay in their own country and not to deploy to Somalia. “It’s possible to get a salary even back in Uganda,” he says in the video.
Al-Shabab identifies the soldier as Masassa M.Y. He was captured following an al-Shabab raid on a Ugandan-run military base in the town of Jannaale, 120 kilometers south of Mogadishu, on September 1, 2015.
Nineteen Ugandan soldiers were killed in the attack, according to officials. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni admitted at the time that some of his soldiers were taken hostage by al-Shabab but he did not give a specific number.
The release of the video comes just two days after the first anniversary of the attack on the el-Adde military base where an al-Shabab raid killed more than 140 Kenyan soldiers.
Al-Shabab said it captured about a dozen Kenyan soldiers in that attack.
Last September al-Shabab posted at video of the same soldier who pleaded with the Ugandan president not to abandon him.
The African Union Mission has not yet commented on the reported execution of the Ugandan soldier.
