Amina Mohamed Abdi ( so, Aamina Maxamed Cabdi; 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 ( so, Golaha Shacabka Soomaaliya; often ''Baarlamaanka Federaalka Soomaaliya''; ar, البرلمان الاتحادي في الصومال) is the national parliament of Somalia. Formed in August 2012, it is ba ...

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 ( so, Hawiye, ar, بنو هوية, it, Hauija) is the largest Somali clan family. Members of this clan traditionally inhabit central and southern Somalia, Somaliland, Ethiopia ( Somali, Harar, Oromia and Afar regions) and the Nor ...

, gaaljecel clan. She attended school in

Mogadishu Mogadishu (, also ; so, Muqdisho or ; ar, مقديشو ; it, Mogadiscio ), 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 ...

, 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 ( so, Dagaalkii Sokeeye ee Soomaaliya; ar, الحرب الأهلية الصومالية ) is an ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the Military dictatorship, military junta wh ...

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 A woman delegate from Hirshabelle state casts her vote in Jowhar during the electoral process to choose members of the House of the People (Somalia)">House of the People of the Federal Parliament of Somalia Indirect parliamentary elections were ...

, Abdi won an open parliamentary seat in

Hiran, Somalia Hiran ( so, Hiiraan, ar, هيران) 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, t ...

. Abdi was preparing to be a candidate in the parliamentary

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

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 is any violent Strike (attack), attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has suicide, accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have oc ...

targeted a vehicle carrying Amina and her bodyguards in

Beledweyne Beledweyne ( so, Beledweyne, ar, بلد وين, it, Belet Uen) 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 ...

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

car bomb A car bomb, bus 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 roughly divided ...

explode An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...

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 the Federal Parliament of Somalia 21st-century Somalian women politicians 21st-century Somalian politicians Terrorism victims People from Hiran, Somalia Assassinated Somalian politicians Terrorism deaths in Somalia