Mogadishu (Somalia Today) – The arrest in Somalia of a Minnesota man accused of helping run one of the United States’ largest Covid-era fraud schemes has given US prosecutors a high-profile breakthrough — but not yet the courtroom victory they want.
Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh, 42, was detained in Mogadishu on June 25, nearly four years after US prosecutors charged him over the Feeding Our Future scandal, a $250 million scheme that siphoned money from a federal programme meant to feed children during the pandemic.
The US Justice Department hailed the arrest as proof that suspects could not escape American law by fleeing abroad.
“Eidleh’s capture shows that if you commit fraud against the American taxpayer and try hiding across the globe, the long arm of justice will find you,” US Attorney Daniel Rosen said.
But nearly two weeks later, Eidleh remains in Somali custody. His possible transfer to the United States now faces legal, diplomatic, and political obstacles in a country that relies on Washington for security support but has no extradition treaty with the United States.
“The arrest is just the first step, and it may prove to be an uphill battle to get him here and put him on trial,” Joseph H. Thompson, a former federal prosecutor who oversaw the case against Eidleh, told The New York Times.
“There are legal and diplomatic hurdles, which may be exacerbated by our relationship with Somalia,” he said.
Treaty gap
Somalia’s constitution states that an accused or convicted person may be extradited only on the basis of an international treaty or convention. No such extradition treaty exists between Somalia and the United States.
That leaves Washington with a difficult path: persuade Mogadishu to hand Eidleh over voluntarily, find another legal mechanism, or wait while Somali authorities decide whether domestic law allows his removal.
US and Somali officials have not publicly explained how the transfer could happen. The Justice Department, State Department and Somali government have declined to comment on the process.
Nema Milaninia, a US lawyer who specialises in extradition, told The New York Times that Washington’s public praise for Somali cooperation may have been intended to lay the groundwork for a voluntary transfer.
“The legality is really governed by Somali law and Somalia’s sovereign discretion and not really by the existence of a treaty,” he said.
US prosecutors say Eidleh was one of the central figures in the Feeding Our Future case, which has produced dozens of charges and convictions.
They accuse him of recruiting participants, creating fake meal sites, setting up shell companies and collecting more than $5 million in bribes, kickbacks and fraud proceeds.
The nonprofit claimed to feed thousands of low-income children during the pandemic. Prosecutors say many of the meals never existed and that the defendants used the money for property, cars, travel, and other personal expenses.
Its founder, Aimee Bock, was sentenced in May to more than 41 years in prison.
“As Aimee Bock’s right-hand man, he recruited people into the scheme, helped bring new sites under Feeding Our Future’s sponsorship, and shook participants down for kickbacks,” Thompson said.
“Bringing him back from Somalia would be an extraordinary achievement.”
Clan pressure
The New York Times reported that US authorities located Eidleh through his mobile phone before Somali intelligence officers carried out a midnight raid in Garasbaley, on the outskirts of Mogadishu.
Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency arrested him without a fight, according to relatives and Somali security officials cited by the paper.
Eidleh had lived in Burnsville, Minnesota, before returning to Somalia in 2022. His indictment was unsealed later that year, but relatives and officials said he had been living openly in Mogadishu.
His niece, Faiza Lidleh, said she visited him in detention and found him in a clean cell with a single bed. He wore a T-shirt and a traditional Somali macawis, she said.
“He seemed very sad and disappointed,” she told The New York Times, adding that he had been reading the Quran.
The arrest has stirred anger among members of Eidleh’s clan, especially supporters from his home region of Galgadud, who say any case against him should proceed in Somalia.
“We want him to attend court hearings in Somalia and see whether he is found guilty or acquitted,” clan elder Qoordhere Jama said after visiting him in detention.
The clan dimension adds another layer of sensitivity for President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s government, which faces political unrest at home and depends heavily on US military support against the Al-Shabaab insurgency.
US Africa Command continues to conduct airstrikes in coordination with Somalia’s federal government, while Washington has also pressed Mogadishu to take greater responsibility for its own security.
Political backlash
The case also carries political weight in Minnesota, home to one of America’s largest Somali communities.
Many of those charged in the Feeding Our Future case have been of Somali origin, a fact that has fuelled hostile rhetoric from President Donald Trump and other Republicans.
Trump has used the scandal to attack Somalis broadly, at one point describing them as “garbage” and saying Somalia is “not even a country”.
Somali community leaders in Minnesota have said anyone who committed crimes should face justice. But they have also warned that the case has been used to stigmatise an entire diaspora.
US prosecutors, however, frame Eidleh’s arrest as a test of whether those accused of stealing pandemic relief funds can be brought back from abroad.
For Somalia, the decision is more complicated.
It must weigh the demands of its most powerful security partner against its constitution, its fragile domestic politics and anger from a clan constituency that says one of its own should not be sent overseas.
Samira Gaid, a Somali political analyst, said Mogadishu has little room to defy Washington.
“Somalia is not able to resist America in any way,” she said. “America is one of the countries that can make it very painful if you resist.”
