Boobe Yusuf Duale, the Somaliland writer, historian and former information minister, in an undated portrait shared on X by Somaliland Ambassador Mohamed Hagi on November 13, 2026 [file photo]. Credit: Mohamed Hagi (@AmbMohamedHagi) on X.
Abdirahman Yusuf Duale, the Somaliland writer and historian known as Boobe, who fought with the Somali National Movement and later served as information minister, died on Friday in Hargeisa.
Tributes came quickly from Somaliland officials and former diplomats. Vice President Mohamed Ali Aw Abdi called him a great freedom fighter and a writer and historian who played an unforgettable role in the struggle to restore independence and in laying the foundations of the state, the Somali site Caasimada Online reported, quoting his condolence message. President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, known as Cirro, also sent condolences, MM Somali TV reported. No cause of death was given.
He was buried on Saturday at Baqiic cemetery in Hargeisa, according to posts on X, and Somaliland Post said on X that he was given a state funeral.
“The people of Somaliland have lost today a great person who was a national archive of much of the country’s history,” wrote Mohamed Barawani, a former Somaliland representative to Kenya, listing Somali nationalist movements of the colonial period, the failed union with Somalia, the SNM struggle and Somaliland’s peacebuilding. Mohamed Hagi, Somaliland’s envoy to Israel, called him “a man whose life, wisdom and contributions will remain part of our collective history.”
Born in Hargeisa in 1948, according to a 2019 profile published by Oodweyne Media, Boobe studied in Hargeisa, Mogadishu, Italy and the Soviet Union and worked as a journalist before breaking with the Siad Barre government and joining the SNM in the early 1980s, where he served as its information secretary. After Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991, he was secretary of the committee that prepared the constitution, and in 1999 he helped found the Academy for Peace and Development in Hargeisa.
President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud, known as Silanyo, named him minister of information in March 2012. His books include a collected edition of the poems of Timacade, Deelleey: Saadaal Rumowday, and a documentary history of the SNM from 1981 to 1993 that Somali accounts say is held at the Library of Congress. Israel recognized Somaliland in December 2025, but it still seeks wider international recognition, and Somalia claims its territory.
Sources
- Rio Times, Somaliland historian Boobe Yusuf Duale dies, Nov 13
- Mohamed Barawani on X, Nov 13
- Mohamed Hagi on X, Nov 13
- Ahmed Hassan Arwo on X, Nov 13
- Caasimada Online, Boobe Yuusuf Ducaale oo Hargeysa ku geeriyooday (Somali), Nov 13
- MM Somali TV on X, President Cirro sends condolences (Somali), Nov 13
- Oodweyne Media, Sooyaalka Nololeed iyo Siyaasadeed ee Cabdiraxmaan Yuusuf Ducaale (Boobe), May 7, 2019
- Somaalilanders on X, burial at Baqiic cemetery, Nov 14
- Abdirhmanawliyo on X, burial at Baqiic cemetery, Nov 14
- Somaliland Post on X, state funeral, Nov 14