Elman Ali Ahmed (Cilmi Cali Axmed): Mogadishu businessman and peace worker

Who was he?

Elman Ali Ahmed (Somali: Cilmi Cali Axmed) was a Somali businessman and social activist based in Mogadishu (Wikipedia, Elman Ali Ahmed). The New York Times, in a report carried by Canada's National Post, called him "a pioneering peace activist who was gunned down in Mogadishu in 1996" (National Post, 21 November 2019). He was known as the "Somali father of peace" (Wikipedia, Fartuun Adan).

Business

He owned a vehicle repair and recovery service in Mogadishu. He also managed Elman FC, a football team in the city (Wikipedia, Elman Ali Ahmed). He ran a technical training institute where young fighters could learn a trade during the worst years of the civil war, and he put money into children's relief and into repairing roads and electricity supplies in the community (same source).

Peace work

In 1990 he and his wife, Fartuun Adan, began the work that became Elman Peace. Their early programme, "Drop the Gun, Pick Up the Pen", helped thousands of young people leave clan militias, disarm and go back to school or work (Right Livelihood, Fartuun Adan and Ilwad Elman). He was politically unaligned and publicly pressed local leaders to end the fighting (Wikipedia, Elman Ali Ahmed).

Death

After receiving death threats he had planned to move abroad. On 9 March 1996 he was shot dead near the family home in south Mogadishu, an area then controlled by the faction of Mohamed Farrah Aidid. His killing was said to be political; a representative of Aidid denied involvement and condemned the murder (Wikipedia, Elman Ali Ahmed, citing Amnesty International, 1996). Amnesty International said at the time that his murder "sent a chilling message to Somalis desirous of peace and normality — that no one is safe" (National Post).

Family and legacy

He and Fartuun Adan had four daughters: Almaas, Ilwad, Iman and Gesia (Wikipedia, Elman Ali Ahmed). The family settled in Ottawa, Canada, and began returning to Somalia from 2006, when Fartuun Adan went back to continue Elman Peace (Right Livelihood; Wikipedia, Fartuun Adan). The Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre in Mogadishu carries his name; Fartuun Adan is its executive director and Ilwad Elman works with her (Wikipedia, Elman Ali Ahmed). Fartuun Adan and Ilwad Elman received the Right Livelihood Award in 2022 (Right Livelihood).

His daughter Iman Elman became a commander in the Somali Armed Forces. His daughter Almaas Elman, an aid worker who had returned from Canada, was shot dead inside a car at the Halane compound next to Mogadishu airport on 20 November 2019 (National Post).

Sources disagree

• Where the family was in 1996. Wikipedia's page on Fartuun Adan says she left Somalia with her four daughters after her husband was killed in 1996. The Right Livelihood Foundation says Fartuun Adan and Ilwad Elman were already in asylum in Canada when he was killed. The National Post says the family fled to Canada after the war began in the early 1990s (Wikipedia, Fartuun Adan; Right Livelihood; National Post).
• When Elman Peace began. The Right Livelihood Foundation and the National Post date it to 1990. Wikipedia's page on him describes the centre as founded by his wife and children in his honour, after his death (same sources; Wikipedia, Elman Ali Ahmed).