Abdullahi Afrah

Abdullahi Afrah, born in Somalia, was a Canadian immigrant who returned to Mogadishu as a leader in the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) where he became known as "one of the few intellectuals within his organization that had weight to move [the] peace process forward".^[1] He was killed July 1, 2008 in a gunfight with Ethiopian troops.^[1]

Life

Afrah moved to Toronto following the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991, became a Canadian citizen^[2] and worked as a security guard with the Toronto Catholic District School Board, before operating a Somalia wire transfer service, and eventually co-owning a grocery store on Dundas Street West.^[1][3]

He took his wife and three children back to Mogadishu in 1997^[2], where he became known as an insurgent UIC leader under the name "Asparo".^[1] Afrah's support of the UIC led William Kaplan to brand him a "Taliban wannabe" in December 2006.^[4]

A month later, Afrah spoke to Canadian journalist Michelle Shephard in a telephone interview, and urged Canadians not to lump the UIC in the same category as terrorists or al Qaeda, as they were simply trying to repel the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. He also suggested that he may return to Canada, once Somalia had secured peace.^[2]

References