Capital punishment is a legal criminal penalty in Somalia, a nation in East Africa.
Sharia and Islamic tribunals are recognised in Somalia in parallel with the civil law: these would have the authority to order execution by other means, such as beheading and stoning.
Since at least the start of the 21st century, all executions by such methods have been applied ad-hoc, without official sanction, by non-state insurgent militias, in the context of an unstable government, and the ongoing civil war in the country.
A number of these extrajudicial executions have violated sharia legal principles and appear to have a conflict-related tactical aim of inciting fear amongst civilians.
[7] The approximate numbers of executions that have occurred in Somalia, including in the semi-autonomous Puntland and self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland in the years 2018–2021 were reported by the Cornell Center.