Held for nearly two years, elderly Las Anod woman becomes the face of a disturbing Khaatumo war tactic unseen in Somali history.
Her name is Cadar — a name that once meant strength and dignity in Las Anod, where she earned an honest living feeding locals in modest restaurants. Today, she stands as a living indictment of the Khaatumo militia’s moral collapse, having survived nearly two years of unlawful captivity in her own hometown.
In all the chapters of Somali history — scarred as they may be by war — there has never been a precedent where an elderly woman was held as a prisoner of war. This is not just unusual. It’s abhorrent. It shatters centuries of deeply rooted cultural values where women, particularly elders, were sacred. Even the most brutal clan conflicts of the past had lines that were not crossed. Until now.
Cadar was one of many reportedly detained by the Firidhiye-aligned forces in Las Anod. Upon their release, these civilian captives were forced to wear blue cloth — a humiliating symbol representing the Somalia flag, and by extension, the failed state her captors claim to represent. The act reeks of psychological warfare. Coercion masquerading as symbolism.
Let’s call this what it is: a war crime.
Not only does it violate the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit political coercion and public shaming of prisoners, it spits in the face of Somali customs, where even during war, the vulnerable were spared.
This was not liberation. It was propaganda in its most grotesque form — a desperate attempt by Khaatumo leaders to rewrite the narrative by parading broken civilians like trophies.
Shame on them.
No flag, no ideology, no rebellion justifies this degradation. What kind of leadership holds grandmothers hostage? What vision of freedom begins by humiliating the very people it claims to protect?
This is not the Khaatumo of public aspiration — this is its ugly, unmasked reality.
