hadraawi

Hadraawi died in a hospital in Hargeisa, the capital of the Republic of Somaliland, after battling ill health for the past seven years. The poet, who composed dozens of songs and epics in verse, spent five years in prison during the military dictatorship of Siad Barre for criticising the regime. 

Following his release, he moved to Ethiopia, where he joined the opposition Somali National Movement before travelling to Britain and finally relocating to Somaliland, home. 

I want to inform the Somali speaking people anywhere and the world about the death of poet Hadraawi, and that we ought to pray for him now," Somaliland president Muse Bihi told a press conference in Hargeisa. "I send my condolences to the Somaliland people and to all other Somali-speaking people anywhere in the world, we will prepare his burial," he added. 

"This is shocking and a great loss" 

 

President of neighbor country Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud also expressed his condolences too. "May God have mercy on poet Mohamed Warsame Hadraawi, he was one of the Somali intellectuals who spent efforts in contributing to the awareness of Somali people and their literature," he said in a statement. Hadraawi had no surviving children and his wife died earlier this year.