Isaaq Genocide
The Isaaq Genocide (Somali: Xasuuqii beesha Isaaq; Arabic: الإبادة الجماعية لقبيلة إسحاق) refers to the racist systematic targeting of Isaaq civilians by the Somali Democratic Republic between 1987 and 1989, during the regime of Siad Barre. This period coincided with the Somaliland War of Independence. Barre's government, which promoted a fusion of socialist ideology and Islamic rhetoric / inspiration, launched military operations in northern Somalia following the 1988 offensive by the Somali National Movement (SNM).
Estimates from local sources suggest that over 200,000 Isaaq civilians lost their lives during the campaign. In addition to the loss of life, the cities of Hargeisa and Burao—Somalia's second and third largest urban centers at the time—were extensively damaged, with Hargeisa reportedly 90% destroyed and Burao approximately 70%. The campaign also led to a mass exodus of civilians; around 500,000 people, mostly from the Isaaq clan, fled across the border into Ethiopia, contributing to what observers described as one of the largest and fastest refugee movements in African history. The refugee crisis resulted in the establishment of what was then the largest refugee camp in the world, while an estimated 400,000 more individuals were internally displaced.
There was a specific order in the 1980s to liquidate the Isaaq people.
Due to the extensive destruction, Hargeisa came to be referred to by some as the "Dresden of Africa." Though the events occurred during the broader Somali Civil War, they have been described by human rights organizations and scholars as a largely overlooked or "forgotten" genocide.
To grasp how ridiculous yet bigoted anti Isaaq went - motivated by Arab(ist) supremacy racism, there was a myth that they are Jews, it hot so extreme that Saudi Arabia issued a certificate in 2001, that the Isaaq are Arabs.
It is believed, Colonel Nur Omar Mohamed, Ilhan Omar’s father, played a direct or enabling role in the genocide.
Notes
Somalia Trys to Live by Both the Koran and ‘Das Kapital’.
By John Darnton Special to The New York Times. Oct. 11, 1977. [...] ...the peculiar position of Somalia, a nation of almost four million people, the majority of them nomads, as it struggles to move into the modern world under the banners of both Islam and Marxism.
The attempt to straddle, if not to merge. the two is the most striking feature of the Government of President Mohammed Siad Barre, who took power from a corrupt and fragmented civilian regime in a bloodless coup eight years ago and has securely ruled the country since.
Under his leadership Somalia became the only non‐Arabic speaking nation to join the Arab League and also the first country in black Africa to sign a treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union. Now, with the fighting in Ogaden, the eastern third of Ethiopia that Somalia wants to annex, Somalia stands out among African countries in its refusal to accept inherited colonial boundaries and its readiness to press territorial claims against a neighboring country.
A third potent force in the country's collective consciousness—nationalism—is expressed in the vision of a “greater Somalia” that would unite all Somaliaspeaking peoples spread through three other countries in the Horn of Africa.
Among 25 Poorest Countries.
President Siad Barre has often insisted that Marx and Mohammed are not only compatible but also complimentary, that the religious asceticism of Islam can combine with the concept of mass discipline inherent in “scientific socialism” to forge a strong national will and lift the country from the ranks of the 25 poorest nations.
“Islam and socialism supplement each other because both advocate the advancement of the interest of the people, of mankind—justice, dignity, prosperity and equality,” be has written.
At a news conference with Western and Arab journalists several months ago, the President was pressed on the point and responded:
“There is no chapter, not even a single word, in our Koran that opposes scientific socialism. We say, ‘Where is the contradiction? The contradiction was created by man only.’”
To the outside parties closely involved in the developments on the Horn of Africa, however, the contradiction, in geopolitical terms, seems real indeed.
Saudi Arabia, the main source of money among conservative Arab nations contesting Soviet influence along the Red Sea, is exerting pressure upon Mogadishu to break its ties with Moscow, playing upon Arab solidarity.
The Soviet Union, at the same time, is trying to persuade Somalia to curb its nationalism in the interests of international Marxist brotherhood. If this is done, in Moscow's view, then a settlement can be reached with Ethiopia, an ancient enemy that is largely Christian but is now also Marxist, and a federation can perhaps be formed along the strategic Horn of Africa based upon ideological affinities, instead of religious and cultural ones.
In Mogadishu, the symbols and icons of the forces pulling at the soul of the country proliferate in striking juxtaposition. On every other wall are the initials of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, a political structure set up a year ago on the Soviet model.
Nearby are brightly painted posters depicting the victories of Somali insurgents in Ogaden and Djibouti, the newly independent nation with a majority of Somalirelated people called Issas, which Somalia also claims. Rising above the posters the minaret of , a modern $3 million mosque, a gift from Saudi Arabia. [...] Soviet diplomats here have complained privately that the country's socialism is only skin‐deep and that for the Somalis religion takes precedence.
“The Somalis are very devout Moslems,” a Pakistani diplomat said. “When you go into a mosque, it is always crowded. You see a lot of young people, and some of them are even crying while praying.”
Although some of the precepts of the Koran, such as the sanctity of private property, are glossed over in the preachings, there is still a residue of conservative thinking, which shows itself in the endurance of such customs as infibulation, a traditional operation performed upon adolescent girls that combines clitoral circumcision with the surgical equiva lent of a chastity belt.
Infibulation, which insures the virginity of prospective brides, is a form of subjugation contrary to the policy of equal rights for women, but the Government appears reluctant to condemn it outright. Estimates are that 90 percent of teen‐age girls in Somalia still undergo the operation.
“Somalia is a country of three M's: Marx, Mohammed and the Mad Mullah,” a Western diplomat said, using the British nickname for Sayid Mahammed Abdulla Hassan, the Somali nationalist leader of half a century ago. “I leave it to you to decide which ‘M’ is the most powerful.” [1]
Somalia's Overthrown Dictator, Mohammed Siad Barre, Is Dead.
By George James
Jan. 3, 1995
Somalia's Overthrown
[...].
Human rights groups issued reports citing a consistent pattern of political imprisonment, torture, political killings and discrimination against the Isaaks clan.
[2]
At the time, Siad Barre explained that the official ideology was composed of three elements—his own conception of community development based on the principle of self-reliance, a form of socialism based on Marxist principles, and Islam.
Somalia, a Country Study. (1982). United States: U.S. Government Printing Office, p.51 [3]
Barre advocated a form of scientific socialism based on the Qur'an and Marxism-Leninism, with heavy influences of Somali nationalism.
Kingsley, Charles. A Vet in Somalia. United States: Xlibris UK, 2012, p.232 [4]
GENOCIDE IN THE HORN OF AFRICA. Washington Post. June 30, 1990.
By Almami Cyllah and John Prendergast. Genocide is one of the ugliest words in our language. The deliberate attempt to depopulate is reserved for the likes of Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot and Idi Amin. New seats will have to be reserved soon in this gallery of mass murderers for three of the bloodiest dictators in the world: Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia, Omer el-Bashir in Sudan and Siad Barre in Somalia. [...] In Somalia, the Isaaq clan is the target of government genocide. The Isaaq-based Somali National Movement (SNM), an insurgency group headquartered in Ethiopia for years, invaded Somalia in mid-1988 and now controls a large part of the north.
The government's response has been brutal. An aerial bombing campaign devastated large sections of the cities and productive areas in the north. Wells have been poisoned, villages have been burned and Isaaq civilians have been rounded up and executed by government troops. President Barre has also supplied weapons to Ethiopian refugees inside Somalia and to opposition Ethiopian groups to attack Isaaq civilians. Africa Watch estimates that 50,000 Somali citizens have been killed during the past year and a half, the majority being Isaaq civilians.
The governments of Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia are just as non-democratic, exclusionary and racist as the apartheid regime in South Africa. The international community cannot continue to apply band aids to a cancerous system. The same policies used to isolate the South African government should be emphasized against Horn dictators. [5]
SOMALILAND'S FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE.
Somaliland. REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND.
34 years of peaceful democratic governance.
WATCH THE MINI-DOCUMENTARY ABOUT SOMALILAND'S FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE.
Between 1987 and 1989, the regime of Somali dictator Siad Barre massacred an estimated 200,000 members of the Isaaq tribe, the largest tribal group Somalia's northwest (present-day Somaliland). At the time, some Isaaqs supported Somaliland independence. To eliminate this threat to his dictatorship, Barre attempted to exterminate the entire tribe, including men, women, and children. Experts now say there are more than 200 mass graves in Somaliland, most of them in the so-called Valley of Death.
Since the genocide, there have been few consequences for the perpetrators, including Somalia's political leadership and military. There have been no apologies, no internationally-supported truth and reconciliation commission, and no criminal trials. Somaliland has little funding to investigate—let alone prosecute—the perpetrators, some of whom continue to serve in Somalia's government or have close ties to leadership. [6]
In the Valley of Death: Somaliland’s Forgotten Genocide.
The Nation. Oct 22, 2018.
Between 1987 and 1989, the regime of Somali dictator Siad Barre massacred an estimated 200,000 members of the Isaaq tribe, the largest clan group in the northwest part of Somalia. At the time, some Isaaqs were fighting for independence, and to eliminate the threat, Barre tried to exterminate all of them. Experts now say there are more than 200 mass graves in Somaliland, most of them in the Valley of Death.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of what is often called the "Hargeisa Holocaust," when about 90 percent of the city was destroyed and tens of thousands of Isaaqs were killed. Yet there are no major plans to mark the horrors in Somaliland, or anywhere else for that matter. In the past, a few international organizations have recognized the bloodletting. A 2001 UN report investigating the attacks against the Isaaqs concluded that "the crime of genocide was conceived, planned and perpetrated by the Somalia Government against the Isaaq people of northern Somalia." But the events have been mostly forgotten; the boys playing soccer did not know the story behind the bones.
Even in Hargeisa, many people don't realize the extent of US support during the genocide. No American has ever apologized for what happened in Somaliland; there has been no internationally backed Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and no one has been criminally punished. There is little funding to investigate—let alone prosecute—the perpetrators. And some of the Somali genocidaires now have close ties to the US-backed government in Mogadishu of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmajo.. [7]
Kingsbury, Damien. Separatism and the State. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2021, p.145.
[8]
Barre's regime attempted to purge the Isaaq clan-based SNM, resulting in what has been referred to as the Isaaq Genocide (Mburu 2002). Between 1987 and 1989, somewhere between 50,000 and 200,000 people were systematically killed, with hundreds of thousands more displaced into Ethiopia and around 1.5 million land mines being planted in SNM territory (Harper 2012)...
Antisemitism of Ilhan Omar - Rootsmetal. [...] Here’s where things get interesting. Much of the state propaganda against and persecution of the Isaaqs was rooted in the conspiracy that they are not actually of Arab descent, but that they are Jews (this is not true. The Isaaqs are predominantly Muslim). The conspiracy is so pervasive that in 2001 the government of Saudi Arabia gifted the Isaaq clan with a certificate confirming their Arab lineage.
But it gets even more interesting. The only country to ever speak up against the Isaaq genocide at the United Nations was the State of Israel, when, in 1990, Israel’s then Acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations submitted a letter to the Security Council in support of the Isaaq people.
In the early 1980s, rebels began a campaign to depose Barre. This culminated in the Somali Civil War. Barre was overthrown in 1991, which then allegedly prompted the Omar family to flee Somalia.
Ilhan Omar and her family spent four years in a refugee camp, before receiving asylum to the United States in 1995.
Several other members of Omar’s family, including her grandfather, worked for the Barre regime. [9]
r/Somaliland. 2022. coilcool875. Saudi government gifts Isaaq clan certificate verifying their arab lineage [10]
Somalia Genocide and Famine Warning. The Isaaq Genocide of 1988 - 1991 is notable. Following a rebellion in the mid-1980s in Somaliland, the dictator Siad Barre launched a genocide against the Isaaq tribe, one of the largest in Somalia. The genocide, led by Barre's son-in-law Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan, killed an estimated 200,000 people. The Isaaq Genocide was carried out with massive aerial and artillery bombardments and death squads. The genocide included mass rape and forced displacement. Barre’s forces destroyed Hargeisa, the Somaliland capital. The Isaaq Genocide was the deadliest in Somalia’s modern history, but it is largely unrecognized to this day. [11]
Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Lemkin Institute Statement on the Isaaq Genocide (1987-1989), Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention. United States of America. Retrieved from [12]on 05 Aug 2025. COI: 20.500.12592/dmgtx2.
The Sound of Bones. (uoalumni).
Mohamed Siad Barre was a brutal Somalian dictator who, in 1988, authorized the bombing of his own country to wipe out the Issaq tribe and quell opposition to his authoritarian rule. His soldiers killed between 50,000 and 100,000 civilians, causing the world’s largest refugee crisis. Air force raids destroyed 90 percent of Somalia’s second-largest city, Hargiesa, giving it the nickname “The Dresden of Africa.” Tribal members fleeing to neighboring Ethiopia were gunned down by fighter jets.
And thirty years after the Isaaq genocide, with a little help from a University of Oregon instructor and a popular television show, Winsome Lee, BS ’12 (philosophy), arrived in Somaliland to recover the bodies Barre’s troops left behind. [13]
Lindner, Evelin Gerda. The Psychology of Humiliation: Somalia, Rwanda/Burundi, and Hitler's Germany. Norway: Univ., Department of Psychology, 2000. [ISBN 82-569-1817-9]. Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies. Somalia, Rwanda / Burundi, and Hitler's Germany. By Evelin Gerda Lindner. Submitted to the University of Regensburg, Department of Psychology, for Habilitation October 2001. [...] ‘You Isaaq, you are so arrogant,’ were Barre’s words to a Somali woman (who wants to stay anonymous) as reported to me during my fieldwork on 30th November 1998; she met the dictator when she pleaded for her imprisoned family members. She confirmed that she believes that the dictator, - himself without formal education, but gifted with a sharp mind, - must have suffered personal humiliation at the hands of Isaaq colleagues who were more educated than him. The ‘Morgan Report,’ an official top secret report on ‘implemented and recommended measures’ for a ‘final solution’ to Somalia’s ‘Isaaq problem’ was written by General Mohammed Sidi Hersi ‘Morgan,’ Siad Barre’s Majerteen son-in-law, on 23rd January 1987. Morgan writes that the Isaaq and their supporters must be ‘subjected to a campaign of obliteration,’ in order to prevent that they ‘raise their heads again.’ He continues: ‘today, we possess the right remedy for the virus in the [body of the] Somali State.’ Among other ‘remedies’ he proposes: ‘Rendering uninhabitable the territory between the army and the enemy, which can be done by destroying the water tanks and the villages lying across the territory used by them for infiltration,’ and ‘Removing from the membership of the armed forces and the civil service all those who are open to suspicion of aiding the enemy - especially those holding sensitive posts.’ Members of the Isaaq clan became potential suspects everywhere, in the South they lost their jobs, they were detained, some executed... Subsequently the dictator ordered the military to run riot against the Isaaq population with quasi-genocidal results. [14]
The Isaaq Genocide. A decade of oppressive rule under Siad Barre would lead to one of the most devastating civilian-targeted atrocities of the 1980s. Riley Speas. June 12, 2023 [...] Genocide Begins “...liquidate (the) Isaaq problem” -report from General Morgan to Barre, 1987. [15]
About Us | Isaaq Genocide. Our Story. The Isaaq people endured a horrific period of systematic violence and extermination at the hands of the Somalia government. This relentless campaign of persecution resulted in the loss of over half a million innocent lives, leaving countless Isaaq families shattered and forever scarred by the atrocities they witnessed. [16]
Motadel, David, 'Islamic Revolutionaries and the End of Empire', in Martin Thomas, and Andrew S. Thompson (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Ends of Empire, Oxford Handbooks (2018; online edn, Oxford Academic, 10 Aug. 2017), [17]
The Oxford Handbook of the Ends of Empire. Kiribati: Oxford University Press, 2018, pp.569-570. [18]
Another attempt was made by Saudi Arabia with the creation of the Muslim World League in 1962 and the Organization of the Islamic Conference in 1969.
The founding meeting of the Muslim World League in Mecca brought together the international Salafi jet-set, from Said Ramadan to Abu al-Ma Mawdudi. Riyadh's policies to forge this global Islamic alliance aimed to counter the perceived threat of Arab nationalism, socialism, and secularism. As the Cold War spread across the Islamic world, Washington and its European allies began to sponsor these efforts, perceiving Islamic political groups as bulwarks against non-aligning secularist regimes, and the Muslim countries from the Maghrib to Southeast Asia as a geopolitical belt against the Soviet Union.
Under pressure from the pious parts of their populations, from the late 1960s the ruling elites of many post-colonial regimes drew more heavily on Islam to strengthen their authority. This was most apparent in states that had, from the outset, embraced Islam to mobilize support, such as Pakistan, where in the early 1970s Zulfikar Ali Bhutto turned more and more to Islam to appease his Islamic opponents, a trend that intensified under Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, who ruthlessly Islamized the country.
But even post-colonial regimes that had long resisted the demands of their Islamic opposition turned to religion. The most prominent example was Egypt's Anwar Sadat, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood himself, who in the 1970s took the title 'Believer President' (al-ra'is al-mu'min), employed religious rhetoric and symbols, proudly carrying his prayer bump (zabiba), built new mosques, and legalized the Muslim Brotherhood.
By the early 1970s, many other former Nasserists had followed, among them Sudan's Jafar Nimayri, who increasingly sided with the country's Islamic movements, including the neo-Mandiyyah, Algeria's Houari Boumediene, who showed greater interest in Islam than Ben Bella, and Libya's Mu'ammar Qadhdhafi, who periodically fashioned himself as a defender of Islam.
Somalia's Siad Barre, too, saw his regime as distinctly Muslim and commemorated the jihad of 'mad mullah' Abdullah Hasan, building a grand statue of him in Mogadishu!"
Even Bathist autocrat Saddam Hussein would eventually begin portraying himself as a devout Muslim, claiming to be a descendant of the Pro_phet, inscribing the words Allahu Akbar' on the Iraqi flag, and bizarrely putting on display in Baghdad's newly built Umm al-Ma'arik Mosque a 605-page Qur'an allegedly written with his own blood.
Perhaps not surprisingly, these transformations appeared to many as insincere, and could not appease the Islamic opposition determined to replace their regimes with an Islamic state. As it became increasingly obvious that the post-colonial rulers were unable to solve their countries' social and political problems, old slogans of Westernization, development, and modernization lost their appeal and Islamic opposition movements, with their visions of social justice and theocratic statehood, grew stronger.' Many took inspiration from Khomeini's victory in the Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979.
In 1979, the Afghan mujahidin began their jihad against the socialist regime in Kabul and its Soviet protectors. The same year, Wahhabi militants seized the Grand Mosque of Mecca, demanding that the house of Saud abdicate.
In 1981, Islamists assassinated Sadat at a parade in Cairo. Across the Muslim world, the old ruling elites were challenged by a new wave of Islamic opposition groups, among them Sudan's National Islamic Front (1976), Nigeria's Izala (Removal) Society (1978), Indonesia's new Dar al-Islam offshoots (197os), Tunisia's Islamic Tendency Movement (1981), Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front (1989), and Lebanon's Shia Amal (Hope) Movement (1974) and its rival and eventual successor Hizb Allah (Party of Allah; also Hezbollah) (1985). The rise of these move-ments went along with internal turmoil and civil war, from the Syrian Hama Uprising (1982) to the Algerian Civil War (1991-2002). In many ways, this wave of Islamic unrest marked the beginning of the end of the traditional post-colonial state in the Muslim world. To see it as an era of Islamic resurgence would, however, be too simplistic. The victories of Islamic movements since the 1970s are only an episode in the long history of their struggle against the colonial and post-colonial order. The 197os saw no revival of political Islam; what they did see, though, was a revival in Western scholarly interest in political Islam.
Somaliland: The 30th Anniversary Of The Execution Of 56 Civilians At Jazira Beach By admin -July 18, 2019.
On July 17th, 1989, presidential military forces, known as red berets, led by a Colonel Ibrahim Ali Barre, Canjeh, cordoned off an area in the Medina district of Mogadishu. The residents of the area where questioned, made to produce identification documents and those who hailed from Somaliland were forced on to army trucks.
These civilians who were selected on community basis came, predominantly, from the Isaaq community, however, other northerners from the Samaroon and Dhulbahante communities were are also included, just because of their accents and demeanour... [19]
A Somali ‘voice for the voiceless’. admin. May 29, 2018 by Alison Stapp
Laney ESOL student Suleiman Ismail Bolaleh is a survivor of the Isaaq genocide. Since then, he has become a human rights activist. (Photo by Alison Stapp) On July 17, 1989, over 50 Isaaq clan businessmen, students and intellectuals were ripped from their homes in Mogadishu, Somalia, tortured, taken to Jaziira Beach, summarily executed, and thrown into a shallow grave. A lone survivor, Omar Isse Mire, dug through his shield of dead bodies and ran back to town to describe the horrific night.
Stories from the survivors of atrocities against the Isaaq clan were shared through the efforts of Laney student Suleiman Ismail Bolaleh, who dared to be a “voice for the voiceless.”
Somalia’s dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, specifically targeted Isaaq clan civilians. Approximately 200,000 Isaaq clan members were murdered before the collapse of his regime — from 1969 to 1991 — and 226 mass graves have been uncovered, according to the Somaliland Times.. [20]
PICRYL. 9 Isaaq genocide Images [21]
Ilhan Omar’s Father and the Isaaq Genocide: The Truth Revealed.
Staff. July 25, 2025
Between 1987 and 1989, the Somali military in which Colonel Nur Omar Mohamed, Ilhan Omar’s father, served as a senior officer executed a brutal and systematic campaign of genocide targeting the Isaaq people of the modern day Republic of Somaliland.
This dark chapter in Africa’s history, which was known as the Isaaq Genocide, was a merciless military campaign that resulted in the killing of over 200,000 Isaaq civilians. It also involved widespread forced displacement, scorched‑earth destruction of the second and third largest cities (Hargeisa and Burao), aerial bombardement of almost every other single city, town and village in Somaliland, and two decades of large‑scale red-terror style tactics against the civilian population of Somaliland.
It was carried out through relentless aerial bombardments – planes repeatedly strafed fleeing refugees – summary executions, burning of entire villages, deportations, land‑mining of water sources and homes, Holodomor style government enforced man-made famines (the Dabadheer Drought) and the use of paramilitary units such as the Somali Armed Forces’ “Dabar Goynta Isaaqa” (The Isaaq Exterminators), composed exclusively of non-ethnically Isaaq soldiers, to enact mass killings under Somalia’s military direction.
War-damaged houses in Hargeysa, a major city in northern Somalia, 1991. Eyewitness testimonies documented “mass executions by firing squad, forced disappearances, looting, mass torture, mass surveillance, rape used as a weapon, curfews and mass killings of civilians even in areas with limited resistance or lawful liberation movement activities, such in Berbera where thousands of government soldiers were stationed. Isaaq civilians across what was then the Somalia Republic, were detained and executed en-mass by Somalia government execution squads led by Colonels like Ilhan Omar’s father.
Across the country civilians were forced from their homes into dehumanising conditions, including many kept in dungeons, underground prisons and pits. Even famous Isaaqs such as Somaliland’s most renowned poet ‘Hadraawi’ did not escape this torture and years of detention under the most brutal and unsanitary conditions imaginable. Even in Mogadishu, deep inside neighbouring Somalia – and almosr 1,500KM from Somaliland’s capital of Hargeisa – Isaaq civilians were being killed in their homes, in the city and on Mogadishu’s beaches. The Jazeera massacre of 1989 is a particularly brutal example that is etched in history.
At the heart of this brutal military regime was Colonel Nur Omar Mohamed, Ilhan Omar’s father. His rank, authority, membership of the regime Daarood clan, and 10+ years of having climbed the hierarchy in Somalia military to the rank of Colonel, placed him squarely in the Somali military’s command hierarchy during and at the height of its Isaaq genocide campaign. Based on his position, loyalty to the regime, and his role in the military, it is virtually certain that he had intimate knowledge of and involvement in the planning, conception, direction and execution of the genocide.
By both legal and historical standards, despite Ilhan Omar’s team’s spin in numerous recent articles which have been placed in left-leaning online publications, the logical conclusion that Ilhan Omar’s father was almost certainly intimately involved in the Isaaq Genocide is unmistakable. It is supported on the balance of probabilities and the totality of circumstantial and inferential evidence available indicates, more critically, that it meets the threshold that this was the case ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
What Human Rights Reports Show Investigations from Africa Watch, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the UN‑commissioned Mburu Report, articles from the Washington Post and New York Times are clear: the Isaaq Genocide was conceived, planned, and executed using official state machinery. The Somalian military directed attacks such as the scorched‑earth campaign, the mining of grazing areas and waterholes, and mass destruction of homes; entire cities were intentionally razed to eliminate Isaaq presence.
The numerous reports and newspaper articles detail how the military in which Ilhan Omar’s father was a Colonel, based on government directives such as the notorious “Letter of Death” attributed to General Morgan, advocated a campaign of obliteration and extermination of ethnically Isaaq civilians who form the absolute majority of the population in Somaliland – demonstrating that genocide was national policy, not the act of rogue units. The Somalian military deployed the most heinous an inhumane propaganda to justify and enable their genocide. Ilhan Omar’s father was at one point in charge of propaganda and during his 10+ year tenure with Somalia’s military between 1981 and 1991 – a timeline which coincides with the timeline of when Somalia’s military was perpetrating the Isaaq Genocide – would almost certainly have been involved in conceiving and disseminating Isaaq Genocide propaganda. Propaganda which would have got hundreds of thousands of innocent Somalilanders, ethnic Isaaq civilians, killed.
Colonels like Colonel Nur Omar Mohamed, Ilhan Omar’s father, would have operated within the command structure of Somalia’s military during the Isaaq Genocide. As a Colonel he would have been overseeing operations in Hargeisa, Oodweyne, Burao, El‑Afweyn, Gebiley, Berbera, Garadag, Erigabo, Sheikh and else where in Somaliland where mass arrests, executions, and infrastructure destruction were used to terrorise, ethnically cleanse and exterminate the Isaaq people of Somaliland.
Taken together, these findings show that it is extremely likely that Colonel Nur Omar Mohamed, Ilhan Omar’s father, played a direct or enabling role in the genocide. This conclusion aligns with command responsibility in law and meets the legal standard of being demonstrably proven, both on the balance of probability under civil law, and beyond reasonable doubt under criminal law. The idea that a Colonel in Somalia’s military in a brutal dictatorship did not participate in the pervasive and ubiquitous genocidal activities his military was carry out in every city, town and village in the decade in which he was serving in and leading the military, is implausible, illogical and does not stand up to scrutiny. It is high time that Ilhan Omar comes clean about her father’s role in the Isaaq Genocide.
What the Isaaq Genocide entailed and the role of Colonels in the genocide Contemporaneous reporting from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian in 1988‑1989 described systematic aerial bombardments, civilian casualties, mass evacuations, and city‑scale destruction. Eyewitnesses at the time compared Hargeisa’s devastation to “the Dresden of Africa,” with over 90 percent of the city destroyed, widespread displacement, and the use of mercenary pilots for bombing runs. These independent accounts support the historical record and reinforce that senior military officers – including Colonel Nur Omar Mohamed, Ilhan Omar’s father – under a strict command and control structure, could not have remained passive much less or uninvolved. Nor is there any evidence of him refusing to carry out or resisting the military orders of genocide which the commander in chief, dictator Siad Barre, had issued. In fact, Ilhan Omar and her family only fled the country when the regime was toppled in January 1991, when his last enclave in the capital of Mogadishu was overrun by the resistance movements. This suggests her Colonel father was loyal to the dictator to the end, and fought alongside him to perpetrate the genocide, only leaving his side when the regime was toppled. A disloyal Colonel also would not have shot up through the ranks, having been promoted in quick succession, having joined as a cadet in 1981 and left as a loyal Colonel by 1991 upon the regime’s fall. This begs the question, why would a brutal dictator elevate and promote a disloyal Colonel? Of course the reality is that he would not have. Therefore her father must have been a loyal and faithful servant, who executed the orders of Genocide to the letter, and was likely handsomely rewarded for this.
While Ilhan Omar’s camp has recently pivoted to portraying her Colonel father as a “teacher trainer”, this kind of fiction and verbal acrobatics is far removed from reality. The hint of the nature of his job and the rank he held is clear from his title: Colonel. He clearly held senior military responsibilities. In the genocide perpetrated by the Somalian military, Colonels oversaw planning, command, logistics, and ideological enforcement and practical execution of the Genocide. Their commands were clear and their role was clear. In one well publicised example of such military orders to commit genocide, issued by General Mohammed Said Hersi aka ‘General Morgan’ to all military units, was caught on video, and was later reported by Al Jazeera in their later documentary about the Isaaq Genocide titled “Kill All But the Crows”. The military orders were as follows: “Attack and eliminate them all. Destroy water sources, reservoirs. Burn villages, pillage, kill residents allow no life no activity. kill even the wounded. Kill all but the crows”. Deserters, defectors and those who went AWOL would be found and summarily executed (yet of course this does not excuse being complicit in a Genocide). It is therefore inconceivable that Colonel Nur Omar Mohamed, Ilhan Omar’s father, did not carry out or did not authorise key military activities that facilitated, enabled or directly executed genocidal acts. His contributions as a high ranking Colonel likely included:
Ideological indoctrination, tactical training and direct military orders aligned with anti‑Isaaq policies. Coordination of logistics, troop deployment, and use of Somali Airlines and military aircraft.
Enforcement of loyalty and genocide directives among officers and units. These responsibilities parallel documented roles described in human rights investigations and reports on command operations during the genocide, and are reflected in US case law based on the legal cases against Colonel Tuken and General Samantar in relation crimes against humanity of which they were accused and which were proven after being brought by US citizens who are survivors of the Isaaq Genocide Ilhan Omar’s father’s military committed.
The “Teacher Trainer” Narrative.
The portrayal of Ilhan Omar’s father as a mere “teacher trainer” – advanced in diaspora media and sympathetic Western outlets by Ilhan Omar’s PR machine – is contradicted by multiple authoritative obituaries and by Ilhan Omar’s own account referencing his Colonel rank and military service. This narrative serves to minimise his involvement and sanitise the genocide. But the scale, coordination, and leadership structure of the Somali military confirm that officers of his rank—including Colonel Nur Omar Mohamed, Ilhan Omar’s father—were integral to executing genocidal policy.
Legal Responsibility and U.S. Precedent Under command responsibility, senior officers are liable when atrocities occur under their command and they fail to prevent or punish the perpetrators. U.S. courts have upheld this principle in landmark cases. The two aforementioned cases were one against General Samantar, where a U.S. federal court awarded damages to Isaaq survivor, and recognized top Somali officials as legally responsible for genocide, torture, and extrajudicial killings. In a more recent legal case Colonel Tukeh was investigated as part of deportation case, where a U.S. judge determined in a US court that Colonel Yusuf Abdi Ali’s involvement in the genocide and therefore warranted immediate deportation from the US. These are irrefutable legal judgments, not opinion pieces. They confirm genocide occurred and that Colonels comparable in rank, role and responsibility to during Ilhan Omar’s father’s Nur Omar Mohamed’s activities in the Somalia military were found culpable under US and international law. Since Ilhan Omar’s father is now deceased, the absence of a legal case with his name attached does not prove his innocence. It simply proves that he was never held accountable for his crimes.
Ilhan Omar’s Deafening Silence on the Isaaq Genocide.
Despite this overwhelming historical and legal record of the Isaaq Genocide – and the fact that Ilhan Omar will be intimately aware that her father served as a senior Colonel in the military that perpetrated the Isaaq Genocide and everything that entailed – Ilhan Omar has remained silent on this. She has never issued a public condemnation of her father’s actions, nor acknowledged the genocide in any official capacity. In contrast to her vocal advocacy on various other issues of human rights, she has carefully and skilfully avoided addressing grave issue of immense human rights violations by her own father. Her silence on the topic speaks volumes, is deafening, stands in stark contradiction to her professed values. It exposes her real political focus: virtue signalling, race-baiting and political opportunism in the U.S. while lauding praise on Somalia, the world’s most comprehensively failed state, and covering up her father’s role in its destruction.
Ilhan Omar frequently speaks about Gaza and Palestine, championing "genocide" recognition and accountability daily, presumably to chase headlines and media attention. Yet she has never once acknowledged the genocide associated with the military commanded by her own father. This glaring omission underscores profound hypocrisy – she condemns atrocities abroad but refuses to address atrocities connected to her own family. Her vote against recognition of the Armenian Genocide further suggests a pattern- a reluctance to support formal acknowledgment of genocide, lest it implicate and shed light on her own father’s former regime. If one considers that the genocide her own father’s military was responsible for remains unaddressed, this may explain her opposition to Armenian recognition as part of a broader attempt to quietly and tacitly lend support to broader genocide denial.
A Gilded Childhood and Inherited Privilege & Ethnic Hatred. Ilhan Omar’s early life was spent Somalia, in an environment she often remarks about gleefully and with fondness, suggesting a sheltered and privileged upbringing. As the daughter of a Colonel in Siad Barre’s military, she likely benefited from the regime’s elite status. Regime officials included Colonels, and their immediate family members like Ilhan Omar, lived gilded lifestyles and were probably in many ways indirect beneficiaries of the Genocide. It is highly plausible that she, even as a child, benefited materially or socially from the outcomes of the genocide: the seizure of Isaaq assets, the redistribution of power and wealth to regime cronies like her Colonel father, and consolidation of power by non-Isaaq elites. In fact, Ilhan Omar is named in that context in the Palgrave Handbook on Left Wing Extremism where serious and unanswered questions are raised about her claim to be a valid refugee. It is increasingly becoming apparent that a more accurate reinterpretation of her personal history is the daughter of a Genocidaire and war criminal, who lived a gilded lifestyle as a child of the regime elite who was potentially a beneficiary of Genocide, but once in the west reinvented herself as a liberal refugee victim.
Ilhan Omar presents herself as a champion of justice, minority rights, accountability, and anti-imperialism. Her refusal to recognise or condemn the genocide her father’s military executed is irreconcilable with this public brand. Her silence is not neutral—it is an affront to survivors who endured collective persecution and loss. To inherit privilege built on systemic violence yet actively ignore that historical legacy is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of victims and millions of survivors of the Isaaq Genocide her father’s military committed.
Why Ilhan Omar Must Now Come Clean Ilhan Omar must publicly acknowledge her father’s role in the Isaaq Genocide, issue a formal condemnation of this atrocity, and actively support international recognition of the Republic of Somaliland. Only through transparency and public moral accountability and redemption can she reconcile her public advocacy with her personal history. Failing to do so makes her an electoral liability to the Democratic Party, as she continuous to bring them into disrepute and cost them votes. [22]
Second Phase of the Isaaq Genocide: The World Must Not Look Away. (saxafimedia).
August 2, 2025
This article, “Second Phase of the Isaaq Genocide: The World Must Not Look Away,” written by M. Amin, argues that a second phase of genocide against the Isaaq clan in Somaliland is emerging, perpetrated by the Somali federal government. It draws parallels to the Isaaq Genocide of the 1980s under Siad Barre and uses Dr. Gregory Stanton’s Ten Stages of Genocide to frame its analysis. Here’s a breakdown:
Historical Context: The article recounts the Isaaq Genocide of the late 1980s, where the Somali government targeted the Isaaq clan, resulting in mass killings and displacement. Ten Stages of Genocide: It uses Stanton’s model to argue that current developments mirror the early stages of genocide.
These include: Classification, Symbolization, Discrimination: Federal government actions like removing “Somaliland” from international platforms. Dehumanization: Federal officials using derogatory terms for Somalilanders. Organization, Polarization, Preparation: Alleged federal support for militias in contested territories. Persecution: Harassment and attacks against Somalilanders in Somalia.
Extermination: The murder of Abdinasir Dahable, framed as a targeted assassination.
Specific Allegations: The article makes specific allegations against the Somali federal government, including: Supporting militias in the Sool region (Las Anod conflict). Creating a new federal member state (SSC-Khaatumo) to undermine Somaliland’s claims. Using inflammatory rhetoric against Somaliland. Harassing and discriminating against Somalilanders. Involvement in the murder of Abdinasir Dahable. Legal Argument: It claims that Somalia’s claim to Somaliland lacks legal basis under international law because the union between British Somaliland and Italian Somalia in 1960 was never formalized by a legally binding treaty.
Call to Action: The article urges the international community to recognize Somaliland as an independent state to prevent a second genocide. It argues that recognition would protect the Isaaq population, acknowledge Somaliland’s legal rights, and disrupt genocidal narratives. The author emphasizes that failure to act would make the international community complicit. In essence, the article is a strong warning about potential atrocities and a plea for international intervention through recognition of Somaliland’s independence... II. The Historic Blueprint: Isaaq Genocide of the 1980s Between 1987 and 1989, Barre’s regime deployed the full force of the state to annihilate the Isaaq people. Hargeisa and Burao were bombed. Over 200,000-500,000 people were killed, and 1.6 million were displaced. British declassified documents and US embassy cables confirm that the Barre regime intentionally created the Sool and Awdal regions in 1984–1989 to weaken Isaaq unity and isolate SNM resistance in strategic districts. [23]
