Amina Mohamed Abdi (; 21 October 1981 – 23 March 2022) was a Somali politician, she was an MP in the

Federal Parliament of Somalia The Federal Parliament of Somalia (; often ''Baarlamaanka Federaalka Soomaaliya''; ) is the national parliament of Somalia. Formed in August 2012, it is based in the capital Mogadishu and is bicameral, consisting of an Upper House (Senate) and a ...

from 2012 till her death, as a member of the opposition Union for Peace and Development Party.

Life

Amina Mohamed Abdi was from the

Hawiye The Hawiye (; ) are one of the principal and largest of the Somali clans, tracing their lineage back to Sheikh Ahmed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Uthman, also known as Sheikh Hawiye, the eponymous figure of the clan. They are considered the earliest do ...

, gaaljecel clan. She attended school in

Mogadishu Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has ...

, and remembered, aged eight, returning from school to find her house empty and her family gone as the

Somali Civil War The Somali Civil War (; ) is an List of ongoing armed conflicts, ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed ...

fighting broke out in 1992. She later lived with her uncle, himself a member of the Somali parliament. In 2012, aged 24, Abdi stood for parliament. She defied clan elders to do so, facing down objections that in doing so she was behaving like a prostitute. Defeating two other candidates, she won a seat reserved for women. In the 2016 Somali parliamentary election, Abdi won an open parliamentary seat in

Hiran, Somalia Hiran (, ) is an administrative region ('' gobol'') in central Somalia and part of the Hirshabelle State. Overview Hiran is bordered by the Somali Region of Ethiopia (or the 1908 Convention Line) to the northwest, the Somali provinces of Galgu ...

. Abdi was preparing to be a candidate in the parliamentary

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

scheduled for February 2021, defending her seat against five men. However, the elections were postponed amidst disagreement over the voting process. She was an advocate for an investigation into the disappearance of Ikran Tahlil Farah.

Assassination

On 23 March 2022, an al-Shabaab

suicide bomber A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

targeted a vehicle carrying Amina and her bodyguards in

Beledweyne Beledweyne (, ) is a city in central Somalia. Beledweyne District is the capital city of the Hiran region. The city is situated in the Shebelle Valley riverine near the Ethiopian border, 210 miles (345 km) north of Mogadishu. Beledweyne ...

, as she was campaigning for re-election. When the casualties were taken to hospital, a suicide

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

explode An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume of a given amount of matter associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Explosions may also be generated ...

d. Amina was killed during the attack. She was just 40 years old. The attacks also killed 47 more people and injured 105.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdi, Amina Mohamed 1981 births 2022 deaths Deaths by car bomb in Somalia Members of People's House (Somalia) 21st-century Somalian women politicians 21st-century Somalian politicians Terrorism victims People from Hiran, Somalia Assassinated Somalian politicians People assassinated by the Al-Shabaab (militant group) Terrorism deaths in Somalia Politicians assassinated in 2022 Deaths by suicide bomber