Ahmad Diriye | |
Birth Name: | Ahmad Umar |
Birth Place: | El Buur, Somali Democratic Republic |
Native Name Lang: | ar |
Other Names: | Sheikh Ahmad Umar Abu Ubaidah, Sheikh Omar Abu Ubaidaha, Sheikh Ahmed Umar, Sheikh Mahad Omar Abdikarim, Abu Ubaidah, Abu Diriye, Diriye |
Known For: | Leader of Al-Shabaab |
Ahmad Diriye (Somali: Axmed Diriye, Arabic: أحمد ديري; born 1972), also known as Ahmad Umar or Abu Ubaidah al-Somali, is the Emir of Somalia’s Islamist group Al-Shabaab. He was listed by the U.S. State Department as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in April 2015. The Rewards for Justice Program currently offers up to 10 million USD for information regarding him.[1]
Ahmad Diriye was born in 1972 in El Buur, Somalia (formerly the Somali Democratic Republic).[2]
He is believed to be in his fifties and is a member of the Bijamal subclan of the Dir clan from the Kismayo region of Somalia.[1]
Ahmad Diriye became the leader of al-Shabaab following the death of the group's former leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, in September 2014. Prior to replacing Godane, Diriye served in several positions within al-Shabaab, including as Godane's assistant, the deputy governor of Lower Juba region in 2008, and al-Shabaab's governor of Bay and Bakool regions in 2009. By 2013, he was a senior adviser to Godane and served in al-Shabaab's "Interior Department," where he oversaw the group's domestic activity. He shares Godane's vision for al-Shabaab's terrorist attacks in Somalia as an element of al-Qa’ida's greater global aspirations.[3]
He was named Al-Shabaab leader in September 2014, after Godane was killed by a U.S. airstrike.[4]