What happened
Ilhan Omar's family fled Somalia in 1991, boarding a traditional wooden fishing dhow to escape a violent militia. The journey was perilous, with scores of others dying at sea. The family arrived in Kenya, where they were housed in a refugee camp before being resettled in the US.
Omar's early life and immigration history are currently under federal investigation, with questions surrounding her birth year, citizenship, and marriages. Her family's journey to America has shed new light on the mysteries at the heart of the immigration probe.
A former Kenyan engineer, Nurien Hatimy, has come forward to describe the family's escape from Somalia. He recalled how Omar's father, Nur Omar Mohamed, and his family were lucky to have survived the journey, which claimed the lives of over 100 people.
The family was eventually settled at the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya, where they lived among hundreds of thousands of other refugees. They were later offered sanctuary in the US, where they arrived in 1995.
