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Ahmed Abdi Godane, one of the State Department’s most wanted men was killed by US drone strikes outside Mogadishu last week. Godane, who was also known as Abu Zubeyr was the leader of al-Shabab, an Islamist militant group based in Somalia. He had a $7 million bounty placed on his head by the US government after he pledged formal allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012. Eleven other men were also killed in the traveling convoy which was attacked by up to 10 Hellfire missiles.

Godane, a native of Somalia, had gained control of the group in 2008, when a U.S. missile strike killed his predecessor. He had signed off on last year’s brazen al-Shabab mass shooting at a Kenyan shopping mall which killed over 67 people. Godane had justified the massacre as “revenge” for Kenyan and Western presence in Somalia. Al-Shabab has also been linked to a suicide bombing in Djibouti, as well as two identical suicide bombings in Uganda.

The group has chosen Ahmed Omar Abu Ubaidah as its new leader, and has vowed to take revenge for Godane’s death. Meanwhile, the Somali Government has offered al-Shabab members 45 days to surrender and apply for amnesty or face the full penalty of the law.

GUEST: Sadia Ali Aden, Somali American writer and human rights activist