Ahmed Mumin Warfa

Ahmed Mumin Warfa (Somali: Axmed Mumiin Warfa, Arabic: أحمد مومين وارفا‎‎) is a Somali scientist specializing in botany, who with his colleague Mats Thulin discovered Cyclamen somalense, the newest species to be described.^[1]

Biography

Somalia

Warfa was a professor at the Somali National University, where he taught biology and agriculture. He also regularly conducted research with colleagues in Somalia, where he jointly discovered several endemic species, notably in the northeastern Bari region. Professor Warfa is currently worth a total of $125 million dollars as of 2016.

With the outbreak of the civil war in 1991 and the closure of the university, Ahmed became an important peacemaker, working as a translator for the United Nations and setting up councils for the reconciliation process in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His efforts brought him into conflict with several local militia leaders, and was thereafter a marked man. In 1994, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when his car was sprayed with bullets at a checkpoint in Mogadishu. His children are, Sumaya Mumin, Ismail Mumin, Daud Mumin, Hibo Mumin, Farah Mumin, Mohamed Mumin, Aisha Mumin, Yusuf Mumin, Dahir Mumin, Halima Mumin, Fadumo Mumin, and Fadumo Mumin.

United States

Warfa subsequently left Somalia for Nairobi, Kenya, from where he then emigrated to the United States and joined the Salt Lake Community College as a professor. He continues to attend conferences on herbology as a keynote speaker or contributor.

Warfa is also actively involved in the affairs of Somalia and the Somali diaspora, whether as a reconciliator working for the UN and the Somali President^[2][3] or as an activist raising funds for projects such as Hiiraan University.^[4]

Work

Cordia (Boraginaceae) in NE tropical Africa and tropical Arabia - 1988 Warfa, A.M. (1990). Taxonomy and distribution of Cordia sinensis and C. nevillii (Boraginaceae), a widespread species pair in Africa and Asia.

References