Photo/ David Ross Elliott
Farhan Mohamoud Tani Warfaa is a native and resident of Somaliland (or northwestern Somalia), where he lives with his wife and eight children.
During the war in Somalia in the 1980s, Farhan and others from his village were arrested by soldiers under the command of Colonel Yusuf Abdi Ali, also known as Colonel Tukeh. The commander’s troops tortured Farhan, including by beatings and by putting him in the excruciatingly painful “Mig” position. This form of torture required the victims’ hands and feet to be tied together behind their backs so that their bodies were arched backward in a tilted U-shape, a shape that was thought to resemble the Somali Air Force’s Mig aircraft. At trial, Farhan testified that after months of torture and interrogations, Col. Tukeh shot him at point blank range, leaving him for dead.
Farhan miraculously survived and, years later, found justice for his torture in Virginia, where Col. Tukeh has lived since 1996. Farhan will never forget what happened to him and was happy to see justice served, even if it is on U.S. soil. This case has given him hope and he is praying it will both deter others from committing human rights abuses and give courage to fellow survivors.
