By Abdulkadir Osman Farah, PhD Once, two Somali diaspora friends met in a major Somali city. The first returned to the homeland decades earlier. Witnessing people’s suffering and helping them recover from a devastating civil war. The second returned periodically also offering his people qualified support. One day, during a casual conversation over coffee, the...
Dr. Abdurahman Baadiyow There is a profound question that should touch both our hearts and our minds: How is it possible for a society so deeply attached to its religion to remain, for more than thirty years, trapped in collapse, conflict, division, poverty, misgovernance, and statelessness? Somalia presents a tragic example of the enormous gap...
By Ali Haji Warsame A Referee Sent Home, and A Nation Watching In June 2026, Omar Abdulkadir Artan, a 34-year-old referee from Somalia, landed in Miami, USA, with a diplomatic passport and a valid US visa. He was Somalia’s first-ever FIFA World Cup referee and the reigning CAF Men’s Referee of the Year. He had...
By Eng Mohamed Ali Mirreh For years, Somalis living in the United States and Europe have found themselves in the media spotlight. Whether in political debates, social commentary, or news reports, Somali immigrants appear more frequently than many other communities of similar size. Their visibility raises a question that many observers struggle to answer: Why...
WASHINGTON -The Senegal Football Federation on Tuesday clarified the circumstances surrounding a viral social media video showing members of the Senegal national team undergoing security screening checks after arriving in the US for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The federation said in a statement that the footage has led to misunderstandings online, with some reports...
The U.N. refugee agency said forced displacement of people due to conflict or persecution fell in 2025 for the first time in a decade. But the agency warned in its annual report Thursday that 118 million people who had to flee their homes or nations is still alarmingly high. A look at the agency’s Global...
MOGADISHU, (Reuters) – Somali soccer referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan returned home to a hero’s welcome on Wednesday after being barred from entering the United States for the World Cup, describing the decision as a matter of “fate” and urging his fellow Somalis not to lose heart over it. Artan, Africa’s referee of the year in...
By Osman Ali Hassan To chat of Omar Abdulkadir Artan is to write of a man who has spent his entire adult life running. Not from the chaos that birthed him, but toward a standard of truth so rigorous that it exists only in the white lines of a football pitch. Omar was born in...
Omar Abdulkadir Artan, the first Somali referee ever selected for a FIFA World Cup, has been left out from the 2026 tournament after being denied entry into the United States. He arrived in Miami, was pulled aside for additional inspection and was ultimately deemed inadmissible due to what U.S. Artan told the New York Times...
(Reuters) – The United States denied entry over the weekend to soccer referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan, who had been expected to be the first Somali to officiate at a World Cup match. A FIFA spokesperson said on Monday that Artan will not be able to train and officiate at the World Cup — which kicks...