COLUMBUS, OH - Siad Barre, described as a former ruthless Somali dictator responsible for as many as 200,000 deaths, has disturbing ties within the United States, The New York Post reports.
According to The Post, Barre’s son Ayanle, described as his “right-hand man,” and his daughter Deka Mohamed Siad are living in Columbus, Ohio, where they are leading “unassuming suburban lives.” However, the revelation of their presence has led to some within the Somali community in the city calling for U.S. authorities to investigate.
“Siad Barre and his men committed so many war crimes, so I was shocked to see his son [Ayanle] in the mosque enjoying his freedom,” Ali Guban Mohamed told The Post.
“It was a 21-year military dictatorship, one man rule, and a bunch of his men. Siad Barre dictated where you could go, where you could live, where you can travel.”
After Siad Barre was overthrown and sent packing in 1991, his two children arrived in the United States after what was described as two decades of oppression that led to the “Isaaq Genocide.”
As with many Somalis who have come to the United States, Deka and Ayanle have availed themselves of the “generosity” of American taxpayers, taking advantage of lax oversight, and have claimed $1.8 million from a Medicare-funded home health care business, according to documents reviewed by The Post. They also have a translation service and a charity bearing his name.
Historians and human rights campaigners claim that Ayanle served as the head of Barre’s administration during the waning years of his dictatorship. He now lives in a $350,000 three-bedroom house with his wife and young son. The Post reached out to Ayanle; however, someone at his home said he was out of the country. Further attempts to reach out to him went unanswered. Columbus has the second-largest Somali community in the U.S. after Minnesota, with some 70,000 of them living there.
The presence of Barre’s family has outraged victims of his regime, who are further enraged because Ayanle Barre has never publicly denounced his father’s violent regime. Many of Barre’s victims were tortured, maimed, or saw family members murdered.
“It was just awful because, to this day, not a single person had been held accountable for the genocide that took place,” Mohamed said.
“It feels very bad to know Ayanle is here. Others are scared to speak out, but I don’t care. People need to know the truth. He was supposed to be the one who took over from his father, like Saddam Hussen’s son.”
Mohamed fled to the United States after Barre ordered the massacre of civilians in the so-called Isaaq clan living in the north, now known as the self-governing Somaliland. During that campaign, entire cities were desecrated due to aerial bombardment, wells were poisoned, and over a million land mines were laid on grazing lands.
“The American immigration system is broken. ICE is rounding up and deporting people but the children of a known dictator with serious allegations of murder are living here,” Mohamed continued.
The Post was unable to figure out if Ayanle works in Columbus. At one time, he had set up a translation services company called Somal Global Services and is now linked to Halwa Kismay Coffee, a cafe that sells traditional Somali sweets.
In 2004, he launched a nonprofit called Somali Immigrants Achieving Democracy. Photos posted online show him traveling to London, Oman, and the UAE.
One person who escaped the Barre regime is Faisah Abdullahi, 41, who was a child when her family fled the bombing. While en route to the U.S., her sick and disabled father died in a refugee camp in Ethiopia.
“I remember it being a scary time to live there. Soldiers would go around house to house, ransacking the property and stealing any valuables they could find like cash and gold,” she said.
“Suddenly one night the fighting started and all we could hear was the sound of gunfire. Then the ground started to shake and bombs were dropped everywhere. It was chaos.
“There was so much debris coming down and we were screaming and just running as far as we could away.”
One day when she was dropping her child off at a community center, Abdullahi came across one of Siad Barre’s daughters and said it made her feel “sick.”
“I am older, wiser, and do not know what Siad Barre’s children did, but I do not think every human being is bad,” she said.
“But I find it very shameful to live in the same state as anyone who can celebrate an evil person who tried to wipe out my lineage.
“He’s treated like a hero, but he is a war criminal, and we have to live through the trauma.”
Barre rose to power in the throes of a Soviet-backed coup in 1969 but died of a heart attack in Nigeria in 1995, having fled there in exile after he and his minions looted an estimated $27 million in gold and cash from the central bank when they left, according to The Post.
Somalis tend to be a tribal group, and there are actually a large number of Somalis in Columbus who come from the same part of the country as Barre and remain loyal. In fact, Barre is celebrated at the Somali Museum of Ohio, where he is referred to as its “honorable grandfather.”
Barre’s daughter Deka married former Somali ambassador Abdikarim Ali Omar and lived in Ohio. They ran Vanguard Home Health Care, which received over $1.8 million in Medicare funding before he passed away in January 2021. The Post reported that the company appears to have been legitimate and filed proper paperwork. It closed after Ali Omar's death.
Deka is known as a prominent speaker and is seen at various events within the Somali community in Columbus. The Post reached out to her for comment; however, she did not respond.
Ayanle’s relationship as his father’s right-hand man was explained by Mohamed Haji Ingiriis, a historian and Oxford University doctoral researcher.
“When his father had an accident [and was temporarily unable to rule], Ayanle became de facto ruler in the Villa Somalia, running day-to-day regime activities solely with an iron fist,” he told The Post.
“He was so powerful that he was able to appoint and dismiss regime authorities on behalf of his father.”
Ingiriis also noted that Barre’s children “massively benefited from the embezzled properties he acquired illegally during his regime.”
“Siad Barre’s children were not regular children. They were part of a system that killed a lot of people.
“Many Somalis who lived in Columbus have moved away from this family to flee from the trauma that happened to their own families.
“The US should appoint a fact-finding commission of inquiry to investigate the barbaric and brutal atrocities committed during the military regime and hold accountable those who had done those crimes.”
One man who has made it his life’s work to bring those who committed atrocities in Somalia to justice is Suleiman Bolaleh, who has brought attention to the horrors experienced by the Somali people during the Barre regime.
He helped bring a case against former Somali defense minister Mohamed Ali Samantar, who moved to Virginia after the collapse of the Barre regime. He was found liable for human rights atrocities in 2012 and ordered to pay $21 million in damages to victims who suffered years of imprisonment, torture, rape, and abduction under his watch.
Bolaleh was forced to move to California for fear he would be targeted by Barre supporters in Somalia.
“I was a university student when the civil war started, and it was like living through hell. I did not expect to survive.”
“There is clear evidence of ethnic cleansing, torture, indiscriminate bombing of civilians, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
“[Barre’s] red beret soldiers were going door-to-door in civilian homes, rounding up men and children as young as 12 and they murdered them in cold blood.
“They used tractors to collect the dead bodies and bury them in mass graves which are still there today.”
Bolaleh said he was “horrified” when he found out Barre’s family is now living in the U.S. among the regime’s victims.
“I am calling for an investigation to be opened against his family to find out exactly what they were doing during the civil war, what they know, and to give up any proceeds they may have inherited from this criminal genocidal dictator,” Bolaleh said.
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