Alleged Somali war criminal found working as Washington Uber and Lyft driver

Yusuf Abdi Ali, who is accused of heinous crimes during the Somali civil war, was caught driving ride share cars and it's not the first time he was found working a regular job

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Blue Telusma

May 16, 2019

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Is a one-time war criminal nicknamed “The Crow,” who allegedly oversaw torture and mass executions during the civil war in Somalia during the early 1990s, now a highly-rated Uber driver in the Washington D.C. area?

According to CNN, he is, and he got his job easily.

A reporter for the network recently filmed the man, Yusuf Abdi Ali, while he was at work driving his automobile in Virginia. “I do this full time,” he said, adding that he prefers to work on weekends because “that’s where the money is.”

Once ride sharing company Uber was notified about who they had allegedly hired, they informed the news company that they’d suspended Ali. Its competitor Lyft clarified that Ali had not used its service in 18 months, but as an added precaution his name had been removed from its systems.

This isn’t the first time we’ve reported on Yusuf Abdi Ali. Last time, he was working security at Dulles. He was fired, but Uber and Lyft approved him to drive anyways. https://t.co/ZHWAlFFB6D

— Curt Devine (@CurtDevine) May 14, 2019

“The safety of our community is our top priority and we are horrified by the allegations described,” a spokesperson for Lyft told CNN. “Before giving a ride on the Lyft platform, all driver-applicants are screened for criminal offenses and driving incidents in the United States.”

Ali, reportedly known as ‘Tokeh’, meaning ‘the crow’ in his military days, is believed to have committed several atrocities during the Somali civil war in the 1980s. This is the second time CNN has tracked him down, the first incident being in 2016 when he was discovered by a news crew while working as a security guard at Washington DC’s Dulles airport.

Although he is currently being sued in a Virginia court for some of his past discretions, Ali has yet to be convicted of a crime, and maintains his innocence.