A viral Facebook post by conservative influencer "Avery Daye" claims to expose Rep. Ilhan Omar's family history in Somalia. The problem? It's a mix of half-truths, fabrications, and weaponized speculation designed to serve a broader agenda.

Profile photo of right-wing influencer Avery Daye

Who Is "Avery Daye"?

The post opens with authority: "Journalist Avery Daye exposes the history of Minnesota Rep Ilhan Omar."

Avery Daye is not a journalist. She is a conservative social media influencer — reportedly named Avramit — who operates primarily on TikTok, Facebook, and X. She has no bylines at recognized news organizations. She has no editorial standards. She has no fact-checking process. She is a content creator whose brand is inflammatory commentary dressed up as investigative journalism.

This distinction matters. Calling her a "journalist" is itself a lie — one designed to lend credibility to what follows.

Claim 1: "Her dad and her grandfather were both high-ranking military officials in the Barre regime"

Verdict: HALF TRUE, HALF FALSE

Ilhan Omar's father, Nur Omar Mohamed, was indeed a colonel in the Somali National Army under dictator Siad Barre. This is confirmed by his obituary in the Sahan Journal and is not disputed. He served in the 1977-78 Ogaden War against Ethiopia. His military career ended when Barre's regime collapsed in 1991.

But her maternal grandfather was not a military official. He was a Benadiri civil servant — part of a minority ethnic group that existed outside Somalia's clan power structure — who managed the country's network of lighthouses. The compound where Omar grew up was owned by her mother's family, not her father's.

Daye takes a confirmed fact about the father and fabricates a parallel claim about the grandfather, lumping them together as "both high-ranking military officials." That is a lie.

Claim 2: "The Barre regime killed over 200,000 people"

Verdict: PARTIALLY TRUE — HIGH END OF ESTIMATES

The Isaaq genocide, carried out by the Barre regime against the Isaaq clan in northwestern Somalia between 1987 and 1989, is a real and horrific atrocity. Estimates of the death toll range from 50,000 to 200,000. Most serious scholarly estimates fall in the lower range. The upper figure of 200,000 comes from advocacy organizations like the Pulitzer Center and some Somali diaspora sources.

The genocide is well-documented by Human Rights Watch, Yale University's MacMillan Center, and the United Nations. Aerial bombings of civilian areas, mass executions, rape, and deliberate destruction of water sources and food supplies were systematically employed.

But presenting the highest possible estimate as established fact — without qualification — is deceptive. It is a rhetorical choice, not a journalistic one.

Claim 3: "They have family ties to this guy known as the Butcher of Hargeisa"

Verdict: UNVERIFIED AND MISLEADING

The "Butcher of Hargeisa" was Gen. Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan, Siad Barre's son-in-law and one of the primary architects of the Isaaq genocide. His atrocities are documented and undisputed.

The claim of "family ties" between Omar's family and Morgan originates from right-wing outlets like the Daily Mail, Saxafi Media, and PJ Media. What they've actually shown are social media posts suggesting that some of Omar's extended relatives may have had social connections to Morgan — in a country where military families moved in overlapping circles.

No credible source has established blood relation. No credible source has produced a document linking Omar's father to Morgan's command structure. The leap from "some extended relatives may have known him" to "family ties to the Butcher of Hargeisa" is the kind of logic that would get a real journalist fired.

Ilhan Omar at a press conference after House Republicans voted to remove her from the Foreign Affairs Committee, February 2023

Claim 4: "His whole shtick was 'kill all but the crows'"

Verdict: UNVERIFIED QUOTE

No reliable source attributes this exact phrase to General Morgan. The quote appears to be a viral embellishment that has circulated in Somali diaspora discussions and was picked up by right-wing media without sourcing. Morgan made many documented threatening statements — this one isn't among them in any credible record.

Claim 5: "Her family fled to escape being held accountable"

Verdict: NO EVIDENCE

This is the core accusation, and it is entirely unsubstantiated. There is no evidence that Nur Omar Mohamed committed war crimes. There is no evidence that he was accused of any specific atrocity. There is no evidence that the family fled to avoid accountability.

Snopes investigated this claim in April 2025 and concluded: "Though no evidence rules out the possibility that Nur, as a Somali army officer, participated in war crimes or genocide, there is also no evidence that he did."

The Daily Mail — which ran the most aggressive coverage of this story — acknowledged in a follow-up piece: "No document ties him directly to specific crimes."

When even the outlets pushing this narrative concede there's no evidence, the claim collapses.

What is documented is that Omar's father belonged to the Majerteen clan, which was itself persecuted by Barre after a failed 1978 coup attempt. Barre responded by imprisoning and killing Majerteen clan members. The story is complicated — which is exactly why propagandists simplify it.

Rep. Ilhan Omar speaking to supporters during her 2024 primary campaign in Minnesota

Claim 6: "She was not oppressed. Her family were the oppressors"

Verdict: DEMAGOGUERY

The Somali Civil War was a catastrophic multi-clan conflict that displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands. It was caused by decades of dictatorship, clan-based repression, and the collapse of state institutions. To reduce this to "Ilhan Omar's family created the war" is not analysis — it is scapegoating.

Omar was a child when her family fled. She spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before arriving in the United States at age 12. The suggestion that a child refugee is responsible for a civil war is beneath contempt.

The Real Agenda: Why This Matters Now

This is not just about Ilhan Omar. This is a coordinated campaign.

Omar is one of the only members of Congress who consistently opposes U.S. funding for Israel's genocide in Gaza. She has called for conditioning military aid. She has demanded accountability for war crimes. She has refused to be silenced by the Israel lobby or its enablers in both parties.

For that, she has been targeted relentlessly: removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee by Republicans, subjected to Islamophobic smears, hit with an AI-generated fake campaign video by the Minnesota Republican Party, and now subjected to a viral propaganda campaign weaponizing a genocide she had nothing to do with.

The irony is staggering. The same political machine that defends Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza is circulating posts about a genocide in Somalia — not because they care about Somali victims, but because they need to silence a Muslim congresswoman who speaks against their interests.

The people pushing this narrative do not care about the Isaaq. They do not care about Somalia. They care about power — and Ilhan Omar threatens it.

The Bottom Line

There is a legitimate conversation to be had about the children of regime officials seeking asylum in the West. That is a real policy question worth debating honestly.

But this post is not that conversation. It is a right-wing propaganda piece that takes a kernel of fact (her father was a military officer), surrounds it with fabrications (her grandfather was military too), weaponizes unverifiable claims (family ties to a war criminal), and arrives at a predetermined conclusion designed to discredit one of the most vocal anti-war voices in American politics.

The lie is not subtle. But in an ecosystem where a Facebook share is all it takes to reach millions, it doesn't need to be.

We leave no lie in the dark.