On April 7 of this year, the congresswoman met with former TPLF Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to “discuss global health security challenges, including the status of the global COVID response, the global hunger crisis, and ways to improve digital technology to broaden healthcare access.” With regard to the Ethiopian civil conflict, Ilhan has directed her criticism squarely at the government, even as it defends Ethiopia from attack by the US-backed Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which ruled the country brutally for 27 years, from 1991 to 2018, and waged war against Eritrea. criminal justice system into a light of hypocrisy.” In Rwanda on a private visit, Congresswoman Mrs stopped by our offices today, for a presentation of the Foundation and other programmes, initiated by Our Chairperson /HNQBffJDy1ĭavid Himbara, a former economic advisor to Kagame, and Tom Zoellner, author of Rusesabagina’s biography, slammed Ilhan in a Minnesota Post op-ed, writing that her relationship with Kagame threatened “to throw her entire stance on the U.S. She then proceeded to vote against a House resolution to call on Kagame to free political prisoner Paul Rusesabagina. In October 2021, Ilhan traveled to Rwanda as a guest of its authoritarian president and war criminal Paul Kagame, a darling of global elites. Ilhan Omar meets with Kagame and Tedros as they plot against Ethiopia This was but one of examples of the congresswoman’s role in advancing US meddling in the Horn of Africa. When I organized a Twitter space discussion with Somali American activists on Ilhan’s record, I heard an outpouring of anger not only over her perceived neglect of her district, where violent crime is surging, but also over her role in the removal of Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and support for a candidate affiliated with her personal clan. Many Africans shudder at that thought, however –– not only in Somalia, her country of origin, and the rest of the Horn of Africa, but also in the African Great Lakes Region and in diasporas from both regions. Ilhan, an African immigrant and the only Black person on the subcommittee besides Bass, is a shoe-in to become chair if Democrats hold onto the house, unlikely as that may seem. (Karen Bass currently chairs the subcommittee, and vice chairs the National Endowment for Democracy, the regime change wing of the US government, and is all but certain to become the next mayor of Los Angeles come November.) This was his first concert in North America and he’s likely unfamiliar with Ilhan’s record in the House and on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights, where she serves as vice chair. Seeraar is extremely popular in the Somali community and was playing to a packed house he’s unaccustomed to boos. This seemed to be more than he had bargained for when he agreed to share the stage with the congresswoman.Ĭongresswoman Ilhan Omar was booed last night by thousands of the Minneapolis Somali community last night at a Somalia Independence Day celebration concert. The singer shifted uneasily from one leg to another, seeming startled and unsure what to do, then reached out to gesture at the crowd, also asking them to tone down their gestures of disapproval. Some say the booing went on even longer while Ilhan went through the process of presenting Suldaan Seeraar with some sort of award. Her husband, Tim Mynett, stood at her side looking awkward and confused, then someone who seemed to be a concert manager gestured at the crowd more emphatically to tamp it down. Ilhan smiled, gesturing at the crowd to tamp it down, as though the adulation was just too much. It reportedly went on for ten minutes or more, punctuated with, “Get out!” and “Get the fuck out of here!” The booing was so profound and so sustained that it was impossible to mistake it for cheering, or all the thumbs down for thumbs up. Ilhan Omar was greeted with vigorous booing during a July 2 concert featuring Somali singer Suldaan Seeraar in Minneapolis. Framed by Republican media as a backlash against Ilhan Omar’s “woke” politics, the boos of a Somali American crowd expressed growing anger over the congresswoman’s role in US meddling in the Horn of Africa.
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