This is the extraordinary story of an Ethiopian military intelligence operative who spent nearly three years undercover inside Al-Shabaab, only to return home and be imprisoned by his own government.
Ahmed Dheere was recently interviewed by Gole Podcast in Jigjiga, where he recounted a remarkable story from his past.
According to Dheere’s account in the interview, he was a member of the Ethiopian federal military and was sent to Somalia in 2011 on an intelligence mission to gather information about Al-Shabaab, which at the time controlled large parts of the country. His job was to gather information about Al-Shabaab.
But then something unexpected happened.
He arrived in Beledweyne pretending to be an ordinary person with no knowledge of Al-Shabaab. But shortly after arriving, he encountered someone he knew – a former member of Abdullahi Yusuf’s forces who had received military training in Ethiopia and had subsequently joined Al-Shabaab.
Ahmed Dheere feared the man might recognize him and expose his identity. If the man recognized him, his entire mission could be exposed and he could be killed.
So he made a decision that would completely change his life.
He joined Al-Shabaab himself
He told the group that he had escaped from Ethiopia. According to his account, it took nearly three years before Al-Shabaab fully trusted him, and he spent much of that period in prisons in Beledweyne and BuloBurde.
Eventually, he was released and managed to return to Ethiopia.
After surviving years undercover among one of Somalia’s most dangerous militant groups, he probably thought the worst was finally over.
Eventually, he was released and returned to Ethiopia.
But instead of being welcomed home, Dheere said he was arrested by Liyu Police forces under then-president of the Somali Region, Abdi Iley. He said his money was taken and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being accused of being an Al-Shabaab member.
The irony, as Dheere described it, was that he had spent years risking his life inside Al-Shabaab while working as an intelligence operative for Ethiopia – only to be imprisoned by the same country he believed he had been serving.
But the story did not end there.
The judge who sentenced him to 15 years would later find himself sitting behind prison bars in the very same prison. And his sentence was even longer.
Dheere said that chad once summoned the judges to a meeting and asked them about their work. The judge who had sentenced Dheere reportedly tried to impress him by explaining that he had been giving long prison sentences to almost everyone brought before him, sometimes even life sentences.
Instead of praising him, Abdi Iley asked for a piece of paper and wrote a 25-year prison sentence for the judge himself.
When people asked why, Dheere recalled that Abdi Iley explained: “This man has sent everyone against me.”
This is one of the most striking parts of the story Ahmed Dheere recently shared during his interview with Gole Podcast in Jigjiga – a story involving undercover intelligence work, Al-Shabaab, imprisonment, and an extraordinary reversal in which the judge who sentenced a prisoner eventually became a prisoner himself.
Lessons from the Story
Sometimes, the most unexpected twist in a story is that the person holding the power to punish others eventually discovers what it feels like to be punished. Also, in a system where people can be rewarded for punishing others, the person who appears most loyal today can become the next victim tomorrow.
