At least 28 people, including multiple children and an elderly man, were reported killed in an airstrike and/or ground operations near Jamaame in southern Somalia on 15/16 November, 2025. Nine other people were injured. Alongside the civilian casualties, “homes and businesses were destroyed.” Sources were conflicted as to who was responsible for the civilian casualties, with some pointing to U.S. airstrikes and others blaming ground operations by U.S.-trained Danab forces or clan militias.
Amongst those killed, Safiyo Hassan Abukar Ali Bogolow who was pregnant with her fifth child, was identified, along with her four children – ten-year-old Abdifatah, seven-year-old Abdinasir, six-year-old Hussein and four-year-old Abdurahman. Mohamed Abow Sheeq Ali was reported to have lost “2 sons and their mothers” and Omar Haajir’s son and mother were killed. Mallin Basbaas’ son was killed, as were the two daughters of Geedow Ibrahim Sheeeq Osman, nine-year-old Maryan and seven-year-old Farhiyo. Geedow’s eight-year-old daughter Amin was injured. Geedow’s wife and mother of at least some of his children, 30-year-old Nuurto Hussein Abukar was injured; it is possible another mother to the children was injured, as well.
The son of Aadam Salax was killed. Abdullahi Maxamed Abow’s wife and children were killed. Abdullahi Mohamed Abo Sheikh Ali’s [possibly the same man as the aforementioned Abdullahi Maxamed Abow] wife and four children were killed. Muse Ali Abdikadir Muse (Sufi) was also killed. Seven-month-old Nurto Mohamed Hassan [recorded by the Guardian as ten-month-old Layla Mohamed Hassan] was killed with her mother, 26-year-old Farhiya Hassan Omar [recorded by the Guardian as Farihyo Hassan Nuur]. Two children were reported as wounded, and Mohamed Nuur Mayay was seriously wounded. A prominent imam was also killed.
Ali Aden Borrow's nine months pregnant wife was killed, struck in the neck by flying debris. She had been trying to gather her children when she was hit. The children now live with their grandmother, while Ali moves between other villages and the region's capital, Kismayo, looking for work. Farmer Nuur Ali Nuur's wife was also struck by flying debris in the lower body and hand, leaving her paralysed. The couple's infant daughter was also injured, though less seriously than her mother.
Dropsite News reported witnesses as saying that “body parts [were] strewn on the ground and caught in trees.” Mohammed Hassan Abdulle, the father of seven-month-old Nurto, said that she had been “motionless and [that he] was trying to save [his] wife.” Nurto, strapped to her mother’s back, had died instantly, struck by shrapnel in her head and thigh. Mohammed desperately tried to bring his wife, Farhiya, to a local clinic, though her injuries – wounds to her torso and shoulders – were so severe she was “bleeding like rain.” The couple managed to hitch a ride to Jilib, but had to endure a five-hour-long journey “over dunes and flooded roads”; their car broke down during the trip. Whilst in the middle of donating blood when finally at the hospital, Mohammed was informed that Farhiya had died. Mohammed did not know who was responsible for the bombardment, but said “that he saw mortar shelling from the west, across from the Jubba River, as well as about six bombs from the sky.” At the time of the interview, three weeks later, “a drone was still hovering overhead.” Mohamed Abo Sheikh Ali Muudey, whose four grandchildren were killed with their mother, said that “he saw the planes come from the ‘Kismayo-side,’ the regional capital where AFRICOM planes and troops are stationed at the airport, and where Danab commandos are trained.”
Safiyo’s father-in-law, also named Mohamed, had rushed towards her and his grandchildren after the strike. Speaking to the Guardian, he stated that he had been “in shock, standing before the bodies of my grandchildren. They were ripped to pieces.” Abdifatah, her son, had been especially close to his mother. “Abdifatah never left her side,” Mohamed recalled, “always helping with chores. When he was around, she needed no one else.” His younger brother, seven-year-old Abdinasir, had particularly loved his grandfather: “He always asked me to pray so he could memorise the Qur’an. Sometimes I called him my ‘prayer seeker’ and he would smile.” Mohamed found his two other grandchildren, Hussein and Abdurahman, amongst the rubble of their destroyed home. “There was no place to grip because they were ripped to pieces. I don’t know if [what I feel is] pain or anger. So I cry. My grandchildren just loved learning the Qur’an. On their last day, they didn’t even get a chance to eat breakfast.”
Geedow Ibrahim Sheeeq Osman had first heard about the drones from his wife, Nuurto, who called him, alarmed by the drones she was seeing. Geedow had told her to remain indoors. A later call from a neighbour, at 10 a.m., saw him rush back to his home. There, his two daughters Maryan and Farhiyo, were dead. “I saw the lifeless bodies of my children. One of them had their left arm torn off. The other one had shrapnel in their back, which came out of their chest.” His daughter Amin had been severely injured, having been speared with shrapnel in her shoulder, hips, and legs.
Abdullahi Mohamed Abo Sheikh Ali’s grandfather, Mohamed, admitted that since the killing of his family, Abdullahi had “never been the same.” To the Guardian, Abdullahi was clear: “The Americans bombed us. Children, women and elders were bombed. They spared nothing.”
Other witnesses spoke to the levels of chaos. Maria Abdi Haji Guled remembered it as a “shocking day” in which “so many people died. Children were running around. Everything was a mess.” As a mother of eight, Guled was feeding her children breakfast when the bombardment began. Though she had seen planes in the sky previously, she “did not expect it to bomb [them].” When the family heard an explosion, her children ran outside the house to see where the noise had come from. “All my children were lying on the ground covered in blood,” Maria told the Guardian. “When I tried to tend to them, shells began falling everywhere. Every direction you turned, there were shells and missiles raining everywhere.” She saw her neighbours, Nurto and Farhiya, be shot. Some of her children were wounded; it took her “multiple days to take two of her wounded children to get medical care in Mogadishu.” Her seven-year-old son, Abdiqadir, had “shrapnel in two places in his back and waist” and was “unable to walk for over two weeks.” Though he now can, Guled was unable to afford the $1,000 fee to remove the metal from his body.
Mariam Omar Nur Buruji’s pregnant stepdaughter was killed after running to the Quran school for shelter. Her child, a toddler, was clinging to her back when she was killed, but survived. Mariam was distraught: “We are dying for nothing.” Mariam pointed to heavy weaponry as what killed her stepdaughter. “My stepdaughter didn’t die from fighting but from a missile that came from the sky. The shrapnel from a missile struck her breast and neck. It’s how she died.”
The Somali Guardian admitted that “no one has claimed responsibility for the strike” but elaborated that “at the time, US-trained Danab special forces were conducting operations against the Al-Qaeda-linked group Al-Shabaab in villages around Jamaame” and that such units “often receive American air support during such operations.” The website Antiwar reminded that though posts on social media “suggest[ed] that another US airstrike [following four strikes in the days prior] was launched in the area on Sunday, November 16,” these reports were “unverified.” Speaking to Antiwar, an AFRICOM spokesperson said that they “[hadn’t] seen that report [on civilian casualties].” Twitter/X user @inamakhtal reported that both “local sources [and] Somalian officials” attributed the strike to the U.S. While many sources implicated the United States, others pointed to local actors. BMG Somali TV condemned “Jubaland leader Ahmed Madoowe” for his role. Facebook user Shaakir Adow pointed to the “clan militias of H.E Ahmed Mohamed Islam” as responsible. Adow scoffed at the “misdirection and […] childish story” that the airstrikes were targeting Al-Shabaab. Instead, Dow believed “the aim [was] to displace the residents of that district.” Daahir Daare, reporting 25 civilians killed, reported “US backed soldiers known as Danab” were responsible. Yonis Macalim Cali Biyamaal decried the culture of silence surrounding the attack: “Who will take responsibility for the people whose children were massacred? Why can’t politicians at the state and federal levels talk about it? The government represents the people who were massacred in Somalia.” Salma Cumar pointed to “militias working for the interest of the Emirate” as the belligerents.
Al-Shabaab affiliated Shahada Agency News included very graphic photographs of killed and wounded civilians, including one child who appears to have been shot in the head – in both the forehead and chin. Facebook user @Nabadoon Ali Fooddey declared the losses to be “a national disaster.” Facebook user Geesiga Jamaame also included photographs of destroyed housing.
The civilian deaths came alongside an onslaught on Al-Shabaab militants, in which “at least 56 al-Shabaab fighters [were killed] during a coordinated operation across several villages in Jamaame district.” Embedding itself in the local population, Al-Shabaab was reported to have “provided medical assistance” to civilians affected by the airstrikes. The civilians killed were members of the Biamaal clan, “a group that is not well represented in Jubbaland’s government and is indigenous to the area.” A leader of Biammals, Ugaas Ahmed Ugaas Said Ali, spoke of their intention to outlive Al-Shabaab: “We were there before al-Shabaab and we want to remain there after al-Shabaab.”
Maria Abdi Haji Guled disagreed with the accusations that Al-Shabaab were deeply intwined with the local population. To the Guardian, she stressed, “There was no al-Shabaab presence in our town, only women, children and elders. Before the airstrikes, the situation in Jamaame was calm and peaceful.” Mariam Omar Nur Buruji felt similarly: “The only people [here] are livestock herders and farmers.”
Families have demanded reparations and responses from the U.S. None have been received. “I’m requesting compensation for the atrocity that was inflicted upon our family. I don’t even have anything to eat,” Buruji told the Guardian. Others wanted answers for “why my children were bombed as they returned from Qur’an school.” Guled asked “the Americans for justice and compensation for what has happened to my children.”
The psychological toll remains acute: “We can’t sleep because of the loud noise from the drone engines,” Mohamed stressed. “Every night they hover over us. When we try to sleep, we fear we’ll be killed.”
AFRICOM announced U.S. airstrikes in the same province of Lower Jubba multiple times during the same week leading up to November 16th but did not announce any airstrikes as occurring on November 16th. The Guardian slammed the U.S. for the likelihood it knew of, and ignored, the potential for devastating civilian harm: “Testimony indicates that it is highly probable the U.S. drone teams knew children were in the vicinity.” It was probable, according to the source, that the munitions used were likely “MQ-9 Reaper ‘hunter killer’ drones armed with Hellfire missiles.” The drone, which includes high-quality cameras, would allow an operator to distinguish between an adult and child.
It was likely 15 separate strikes occurred. The Guardian stressed that “the Qur’anic school, crammed with children shortly before the attack, was hit alongside residential buildings belonging to families who had lived there for decades.” Other structures destroyed had been homes inhabited for decades: “Guled had lived in the same home for her entire 42 years until it was destroyed. There seemed no obvious reason why her house would be targeted.”
The data of the incident was unclear among sources, with some posted on November 15th but local sources referred to as happening on November 16th. Therefore, a date range has been recorded.
Updated information:
Months later, readers of the Guardian crowd-sourced the necessary funds for Abdiqadir's surgery. The family now lives in Mogadishu, where Abdiqadir underwent a successful surgery. Though he has recovered, his mother remains worried. To Al Jazeera, she admitted, "I hold his hand, take him to school, and I bring him back myself. I watch over him." She is concerned because of persistent worries that another child could push him, thereby dislodging remaining metal shards in his hip.
AFRICOM later dismissed the case. Their report stated that "ten (10) to twelve (12) civilian deaths" occurred - a much lower figure than Airwars has found - but that these deaths "did not meet the 'more likely than not' threshold that U.S. military operations resulted in civilian harm."