Ahmad Umar

Ahmed Umar (Somali: Axmed Cumar, Arabic: أحمد عمر‎), also known as Ahmed Diriye and Abu Ubaidah, is the leader of the Somalia-based Islamist group Al-Shabaab. He was listed by the U.S. State Department as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in April 2015. He has a bounty of $6,000,000 on his head from the Rewards for Justice Program.[1]

Ahmed Umar
أحمد عمر
Image of Ahmad Umar taken from U.S. State Department
Born
Ahmed Umar

1972 (age 47–48)
Luq, Gedo, Jubaland, Somalia
Kismayo, Lower Juba, Jubaland, Somalia
NationalitySomali
Other namesSheikh Ahmed Umar Abu Ubaidah, Sheikh Omar Abu Ubaidaha, Sheikh Ahmed Umar, Sheikh Mahad Omar Abdikarim, Abu Ubaidah, Abu Diriye, Diriye
Known forLeader of Al-Shabaab

History

Ahmed Umar was born in 1972 in Luq, Gedo,[2] or in Kismayo, Lower Juba.[1]

He is believed to be in his forties and is a member of the Bajimaal section of the Dir clan from the Kismayo region of Somalia.[1]

Ahmed 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]

gollark: Only 100 kilomelons for coal ore for the next 24 hours!
gollark: Anyway, you can buy them off us for 1 million melon each.
gollark: And we used spatial IO to remove all but one end portal.
gollark: You can't. Our quarries removed all the ore from the ground for about 1000 blocks, sorry!
gollark: WALL-MOUNTED LASER BEES!!!

References
  1. "Abu Ubaidah (Direye) - Wanted". Rewards for Justice. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  2. Goldman, David (20 June 2016). "Sheikh Ahmed Umar Abu Ubaidah Aka Ahmed Diriye; Al-Shabaab's Indifferent Takfiri Emir". Strategic Intelligence. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  3. "Terrorist Designations of Ahmed Diriye and Mahad Karate". U.S. Department of State. 21 April 2015. Archived from the original on 3 February 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  4. "Somalia Extremist Group Names New Leader". Associated Press. 6 September 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
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