Wednesday December 25, 2024
Colonel Yusuf Abdi Ali, former commander of the Somali Army's Fifth Brigade, played a pivotal role during the Siad Barre regime of the 1980s. His tenure has been marked by significant controversy, with allegations of human rights violations drawing global attention. (Photo: Center for Justice and Accountability)
Ali, 71, served as a lieutenant colonel in the Somali National Army under the Siad Barre regime. As commander of the Fifth Brigade, he orchestrated a counterinsurgency campaign that survivors describe as terrorizing the Isaaq community in present-day Somaliland. Accounts from survivors detail arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings, and the systematic destruction of villages.
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“The United States will not be a haven for human rights violators,” said Russell Hott, acting Executive Associate Director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations. “Justice, though delayed, has finally been served.”In 1987, then-17-year-old Somali herder Farhan Mohamoud Tani Warfaa was abducted, tortured, and shot by Ali’s soldiers over a stolen water tanker. Left for dead, Warfaa survived by bribing his gravediggers. His testimony was central to a 2019 civil lawsuit in which a Virginia federal jury found Ali liable for torture, awarding Warfaa $500,000 in damages. “Even if it took decades, this case shows that war crimes cannot be buried,” said Kathy Roberts, an attorney with the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), which represented Warfaa.
Yusuf Abdi Ali, a former Somali military officer accused of human rights abuses, is escorted onto a Qatar Airways flight during his deportation from the United States to Somalia. CREDIT - ICE
Ali’s deportation is a milestone for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, established in 2008 to target individuals involved in genocide and torture. Since its inception, the center has removed over 1,150 known or suspected human rights violators from U.S. soil.
Ali’s case also highlights the enduring trauma of Somalia’s Barre era. His brigade’s actions are linked to the broader campaign against the Somali National Movement (SNM), which sought to defend the Isaaq clan. Decades later, Somaliland remains unrecognized as an independent state but continues to grapple with its violent past.