Dekha Ibrahim Abdi

A peace activist The hallmark of one of the global peacemakers, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, was her comprehensive and combined grassroots activism, soft but uncompromising leadership, and a spiritual motivation drawing on the teaching of Islam. A founding member of the Wajir Peace and Development Committee, the coalition for Peace in Africa, and Action (Action for Conflict Transformation), Dekha Ibrahim Abdi worked on peace building and pastoralists' development in Cambodia, Jordan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, Netherlands, Israel, Palestine, Zimbabwe, the UK, Uganda and Kenya. Forming part of a consortium development workshops for the United Nations, from 2000, for economic and social affairs, Abdi assisted governments in sub-Saharan Africa in their efforts to anticipate and resolve conflict situations. In 2007, Abdi was honoured with the Right Livelihood Award, the 'Alternative Nobel prize', for 'showing in diverse ethnic and cultural situations how religious and other differences can be reconciled, even after violent conflict, and knitted together through a cooperative process that leads to peace and development.' Born in Wajir, near the border with Somalia, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi was well educated. She encouraged individuals and communities in conflict to examine themselves using verses from the Qur'an. She died from injuries sustained in a car crash in Nairobi.

Compiler: M. Nauman Khan