Somali

US prosecutors reach into Somalia for a suspect in US fraud case.

Mogadishu, Somalia – United States prosecutors have reached across the world to seize a leading suspect in a Minnesota fraud case, arresting him in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh, 42, was taken into custody on Thursday, with US authorities announcing the arrest on Friday. His capture is the clearest sign yet that the pursuit of those behind the scheme has gone international.

Neither US nor Somali officials have disclosed how Eidleh was located. However, the Department of Justice said his arrest was the result of cooperation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency.

Prosecutors describe Eidleh as the alleged second-in-command to Aimee Bock, the convicted mastermind of a scheme built around Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota nonprofit that channelled federal money meant to feed needy children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, the US charged 47 people over a roughly $250m fraud that exploited a federal child-nutrition programme, the largest pandemic-relief fraud prosecuted in the country to that point.

Eidleh fled to Somalia as the scheme unravelled. Bock was recently sentenced to more than 40 years in prison.

According to prosecutors, Eidleh recruited operators into the scheme and collected bribes and kickbacks, often disguised as consulting fees and funnelled through shell companies.

He is accused of setting up his own meal sites under the names of stand-in owners, falsely claiming they were serving thousands of children a day, and inventing supplier firms to bill the government for food never delivered.

“This is a big fish,” US Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen told CBS News, calling Eidleh a key figure who recruited businesses and paid bribes to loot public money.

Crackdown on Somali community

The Trump administration has seized on the Feeding Our Future case to target Minnesota’s Somali community, the largest in the country, with about 84,000 people of Somali descent in the Minneapolis-St Paul area.

Most were born in the US or are naturalised citizens.

Somalia was placed among a list of countries on Trump’s travel ban when he returned to power in 2025 and he has also threatened to revoke the citizenship of naturalised Americans convicted of fraud.

Late last year, he also described Somalis as “garbage” in one of his many rhetorical attacks on both Somalia and the Somali American community.

Federal immigration enforcement agents flooded the Minneapolis area, and two people were killed by ICE agents – Renee Good in early January and the nurse Alex Pretti weeks later – igniting weeks of protest.

In January, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem moved to end Temporary Protected Status, a designation shielding people from deportation to dangerous homelands, for about 1,100 Somalis, ending protections that had stood since 1991.

A federal judge blocked the termination in March, and the legal fight continues.

Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan was denied entry into the United States for the World Cup after enduring an 11-hour interrogation in Miami, according to media reports. Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House Task Force on the World Cup, indicated Artan was suspected to having ties to a Somali militant group.

“We want to make sure we are not going to allow a soccer tournament to be the opportunity for terrorists to potentially get in the country or anybody who is actually talking to them,” Giuliani told the British Broadcasting Corporation.

The New York Times reported that Artan’s name is similar to that of a man identified as linked to Al Shabab, a group that has been the target of U.S. government sanctions.

“I am very, very disappointed,” Artan told the Times from Istanabul, where he stopped on his way back to Somalia. “I’m just simply a referee who’s trying to live his dream, the biggest dream of my life, to come to the World Cup.”

Safety was purportedly the concern with Artan, whose interrogation was conducted by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“During processing, the traveler underwent additional inspection, a routine part of CBP’s inspection process when officers need to verify information or determine admissibility,” CBP said in a statement. “Following inspection, the traveler, a referee for the FIFA World Cup, was determined to be inadmissible due to vetting concerns and was denied entry.”

Somalia is on the U.S. list of banned countries for immigration, although exceptions can be made. Artan is considered one of the best referees in Africa, having officiated in the Somali national football league championship and at the African Cup of Nations.

“Despite the circumstances, I am in a positive mood and focused on the next challenges in my refereeing career,” Artan said in a statement. “I would like to thank FIFA and [the African federation] for all their support and I promise to keep my refereeing levels up as I concentrate on the future.”

Artan, Africa’s Referee of the Year in 2025, was greeted Wednesday at Aden Adde International Airport in Somalia by government officials and hundreds of well-wishers.

“I want to thank FIFA for supporting me all the way, and for Somali people also,” he told Al Jazeera. “So I am very grateful for FIFA and for CAF also. This is what I have to say.”

Award-winning Somali referee, Omar Abdulkadir Artan, has been removed from the World Cup roster after being denied entry to the United States despite holding a valid visa.

Ex-Somali PM Khaire accuses government forces of attacking him before planned antigovernment protests in Mogadishu.

Heavy gunfire has broken out in central Mogadishu as Somalia’s former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire says he has been attacked by government forces before planned protests.

“An attack was launched against us by forces commanded by the president whose term has expired,” Khaire said in a social media post on Wednesday, adding they had been preparing for a “peaceful demonstration” the following day.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud “bears full responsibility for today’s violent attack on our consultative meeting”, he said.

Somalia has fallen into yet another political crisis after Mohamud announced that his term had been extended for a year after it was due to expire on May 15.

The opposition and regional leaders have rejected the move and demonstrations were due to take place on Thursday.

Khaire relocated from his base in the heavily fortified green zone around the airport to his residence in the city, in order to take part in the protests.

RPGs, gunshots

An AFP news agency journalist filmed images of panicked residents in the Howl Wadaag district near his home, with loud gunshots heard in the background. Witnesses told AFP they saw armed opposition forces clashing with Somali police.

“The shooting lasted for about 15 minutes before it subsided. They even used RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades], and the sound of the explosions could be heard across the surrounding neighbourhoods,” said one witness, Saleban Mahad.

The president has been attempting to move Somalia towards democratic elections, replacing a system based around clan elders.

Mohamud argues he was given an extra year in the presidency when a new constitution was passed by parliament in March that set the framework for polls.

But with the country deeply divided between rival clans, and much of it under the control of al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked armed group, there has been little progress on organising elections beyond a few localised pockets.

Opposition and regional leaders have strongly opposed Mohamud’s plan, seeing it as an attempt to centralise power.

Foreign powers, primarily the United States and the United Kingdom, have attempted to broker talks between the government and opposition to little avail.

Reaction to attack on Khaire

Ex-President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has also moved into central Mogadishu for Thursday’s protest. He criticised the attack on Khaire, saying the president “seeks to cause further bloodshed despite not having a legitimate official mandate – his time has expired”.

“This attack will not stop the demonstrations by residents of the capital who are protesting against injustice, displacement, and the abuse of government power,” he said on X.

Previous presidents have also stayed in office beyond their mandates.

Former President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo stayed more than a year in office after the official end of his mandate in 2021, triggering violence and condemnation from the international community.

Families of 10 Pakistani crew members taken hostage by Somali pirates have rallied in Karachi to demand their release. The crew of the Honour 25 have been held for more than three weeks. Hijackings off the coast of Somalia are on the rise in the wake of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Piracy concerns are rising off the coast of Somalia with the government unable to patrol the vast coastline. Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Hamza says desperate fishermen are taking advantage of the opening to head out and try to make a different kind of catch.