A committee in Somalia tasked with investigating the killing of a Somali clan elder who was hit by a US airstrike has found that he was a peaceful figure with no links to militant groups, rejecting claims from US Africa Command that he was an al-Shabaab weapons dealer.
According to Hiraan Online, a Somali news site, the report on the killing of Abdullahi Omar Abdi was based on findings from Puntland security agencies and testimony from witnesses. Local officials and family members have already strongly rejected the US claims, saying that Abdi was known for his efforts at peacemaking.
Abdi was killed by a US airstrike on September 13 while driving by himself in a car in Somalia’s northern Sanag region, to the west of Puntland. The investigators said that he had left the town of Ceelbuh and was on his way to the Badhan district to participate in talks aimed at resolving a dispute between two local clans.
The Hiraan report said that the investigation found that Abdi was “officially registered traditional leader under the Puntland Ministry of Interior and played a significant role in peacebuilding and community mobilization in the Sanaag region.”
According to Brig. Gen. Abdillahi Omar Anshuur, the commander of a battalion in the Puntland Dervish Force, the official military wing of the Puntland government, Abdi met with Puntland’s president not long before he was killed.
“He was a peacemaker who helped defend Puntland during conflicts with al-Shabab and ISIS. His killing was illegal and unjust. He had been in Bosaso for 20 days and had even met President Said Abdullahi Deni. If he were guilty of anything, he would have been arrested, not bombed,” Anshuur said in October.
Before AFRICOM took credit for the strike, locals initially suspected the UAE and thought it was related to a minerals deal between Puntland and Abu Dhabi that Abdi opposed.
AFRICOM told Antiwar.com last month that it was “aware” of the reports that the September 13 strike killed a civilian and said that it “takes all reports of possible civilian casualties seriously and has a process in place to conduct thorough assessments using all available information.” Antiwar.com has asked AFRICOM for a comment on the new report and if the command is investigating the attack, and has yet to receive a reply.
The bombing of Abdi’s car is just one of the 111 airstrikes AFRICOM has conducted in Somalia this year, an unprecedented number as the Trump administration shattered the previous record for annual US airstrikes in the country, which President Trump set at 63 during his first term in 2019. Despite the record-setting bombing campaign, the US war in Somalia receives virtually no coverage in US media.
