Dalayad Haji Hashi Jama, 72; Somalia’s Former First Lady
Dalayad Haji Hashi Jama, former first lady of Somalia, died Monday of complications of diabetes, family members said. She was 72.
Jama was married to former Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre for 45 years. After he died in exile in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1995, she joined eight of her children in Columbus, Ohio, which has the second-largest Somali population in the United States.
Somalia was thrown into chaos in the aftermath of Barre’s 22-year reign, which ended in 1991 in civil war between feuding clans. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled the impoverished country. Somalia has been without a government since Barre’s ouster.
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