# Fatima Jibrell (Faadumo Jibriil)

> Fatima Jibrell (born 1947): co-founder of Horn Relief (Adeso), campaigner against the charcoal trade, Goldman Prize 2002.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/fatima-jibrell/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Who is she?

Fatima Jibrell is a Somali-American environmental activist ([Wikipedia, Fatima Jibrell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_Jibrell)). She co-founded the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization, known as Horn Relief and now as Adeso, and was its executive director (same source). She also co-founded Sun Fire Cooking and helped create the Women's Coalition for Peace (same source).

## Early life

She was born on 30 December 1947 in [Sanaag](/en/regions/sanaag/), to a nomadic family ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_Jibrell)). She went to a British boarding school until 16, then joined her father, a merchant seaman, in New York (same source). She graduated from Temple High School (same source).

In 1969 she returned to Somalia and worked for the government ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_Jibrell)). She married Abdurahman Mohamoud Ali, a diplomat, and began university in Damascus while the family was posted in Iraq (same source). After a move to the United States in 1981 she finished a BA in English and a master's in social work at the University of Connecticut (same source). See [Somalis in the United States](/en/diaspora/united-states/).

## Horn Relief

After the civil war began in 1991, she co-founded Horn Relief with her husband and family friends ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_Jibrell)). It changed its name to Adeso in 2012 (same source). She retired as executive director in 2006 and stayed on its board (same source).

## The charcoal campaign

Old acacia trees in north-eastern Somalia, some up to 500 years old, were being cut for charcoal sold to the Arabian Peninsula ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_Jibrell)). Horn Relief trained young people to teach the public about the damage (same source). In 1999 it organised a peace march in Puntland against the "charcoal wars" (same source). In 2000 the Puntland government banned charcoal exports, and Wikipedia reports an 80% fall in exports after that (same source). See [Puntland](/en/states/puntland/).

Through Sun Fire Cooking she worked to bring solar cookers to Somalia, to cut the use of charcoal ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_Jibrell)). In 2008 she wrote and co-produced the short film *Charcoal Traffic* (same source). In 2011 she published *Peace and Milk: Scenes of Northern Somalia*, a photo book, with James Lindsay (same source).

## Awards

She received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2002 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_Jibrell)). In 2008 she won the National Geographic Society/Buffett Foundation Award for Leadership in Conservation (same source).

## In short

A Somali-American campaigner who co-founded Horn Relief and worked to end the charcoal trade in north-eastern Somalia.

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