Somali war criminal colonel Yusuf Tukeh, one of the people responsible for the world’s least known genocide, of at least 250,000 citizens in Somaliland, was arrested Thursday in Springfield, Virginia. He’s accused of extrajudicial killing; torture; cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; and arbitrary detention, Homeland Security said.
SPRINGFIELD, Va. — A former high-ranking Somali army officer accused of multiple human rights violations against Somaliland civilians and one of the officers responsible for the world’s least known genocide, of at least 250,000 citizens in Somaliland during the 1980s was arrested in Springfield, Virginia, the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations announced Friday.
Special agents arrested Yusuf Abdi Ali, aka “Tukeh,” Thursday, in Springfield for those human rights abuses.
He’s accused of extrajudicial killing; torture; cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; and arbitrary detention, Homeland Security said.
Homeland Security said that Ali, 69, served as a lieutenant colonel in the Somali National Army and Commander of the Fifth Brigade in Northwest Somalia (Gabiley district in Somaliland) from approximately May 1987 to July 1988 under the dictatorship of Siyad Barre.
During that time, the Somali army committed numerous serious human rights violations against Somaliland civilians, according to Homeland Security. Somalia’s government was at war with Somaliland at that time.
“While Yusuf Abdi Ali’s apprehension cannot undo the pain that he allegedly inflicted upon the victims of his purported human rights abuses, it is my sincere hope that by seeing him answer for his apparent role in these heinous crimes, they will be given some form of peace,” said Derek W. Gordon, Acting Special Agent in charge of HSI Washington, D.C. “HSI Washington, D.C. is dedicated to protecting the law-abiding residents of the Washington, D.C. Metro area while continuing to search out those who intend to benefit from the abuse of others.”
A jury in the Eastern District of Virginia found Ali liable in a civil suit in 2019 for the torture of a Somali herder and awarded the plaintiff damages.
Ali previously drove for Uber and Lyft in Virginia, according to reporting by CNN.
Other Genocide perpetrators are at large, notable General Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan, former defense secretary in the Siyad Barre Somalia regime.
