The death of 24-year-old spy Ikam Tahlil Farah has elicited a vicious war of word between the government of Somalia and terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
Ikam worked in cyber security department at Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) until her disappearance.
She went missing on June 26th and NISA reported that she could have been abducted by the terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
The 24-year-old spy was abducted near her home in Mogadishu’s Abdulaziz district, which is close to the agency’s headquarters.
News of Ikam’s disappearance circulated widely on mainstream media in Somalia and social media across the globe.
The disappearance of the young spy raised a storm with her family constantly asking the government to explain her disappearance or produce her. Politicians also picked up the issue and made it a campaign subject ahead of the presidential election scheduled to be held on 10 October, 2021.
On Thursday September 2nd NISA reported that Ikam had been killed by Al-Shabaab without indicated when and where she was killed.
NISA said in a statement that Ikram had “fallen in the hands of Al-Shabaab” and vowed to pursue her killers and bring them to justice.
“NISA has been investigating the case of Ms Ikam Tahlil Farah and came to know that she had ended up in the hands of the merciless group that later killed her. NISA also shared the information related to the case with the family of Ms Farah,” said the agency in part.
Al-Shabaab strongly denied an accusation by NISA that it killed Ikam. In a statement published Friday on pro Al-Shabaab websites, a spokesman for the group said it knows nothing about the alleged killing of 24-year-old spy.
The terror group pointed the accusing fingers at Somalia’s government, saying the regime of president Farmajo killed the young agent after they learnt she was going to expose them.
Ikam’s parents contend the agency was responsible for their daughter’s death, her mother Qali Mohamud Guhad said she doesn’t believe Al-Shabaab killed her daughter.
“I do not believe that Al-Shabaab killed my daughter, because when she was kidnapped, she was with people she trusted in the agency,” Guhad told local media.
Former NISA Director-General Abdullahi Ali Sanbalolshe told VOA Somali in July that some people told him Ikam had records about a program that secretly sent Somali military recruits to Eritrea to train. Allegations surfaced in June that those recruits have been fighting and dying in Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict.
“Ikam also could possess other sensitive information for which she could have been targeted,” Sanbalolshe said, noting that he hired the young woman in 2017.
Opposition leaders have been pressuring NISA and the government for information about Ikam’s disappearance.
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