How did the man, who married Ilhan Omar and people claim is her brother, get separated from the family in Somalia to get to England?

1. Who is Ahmed Elmi and where reporting says he went after 2011

Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is identified in multiple profiles as the British Somali man Ilhan Omar married in 2009 and from whom she says she separated in 2011; several outlets quote Omar’s statement that “our relationship ended in 2011 and we divorced in our faith tradition, after which he moved home to England” ^{[1] [7] [5]}. Commentators and some conservative outlets have described Elmi thereafter as residing in London or elsewhere in the U.K., and some later pieces track his social-media presence in other countries, but the basic line in Omar’s own account and in biographical reporting is that he returned to Britain after their split ^{[2] [8]}.

2. The broader family story reporters have used to explain separations

Biographical reporting establishes that Omar’s family fled Somalia during the civil war in 1991, spent years in a Kenyan refugee camp, and ultimately dispersed: some members received asylum in the United States while other siblings — sometimes named in reports as Ahmed Nur Said Elmi among them — secured asylum or citizenship in the United Kingdom, which helps explain why family members ended up in different countries ^{[4] [3] [7]}. Those biographical facts are used by reporters to contextualize why siblings and relatives were separated across countries, but they do not provide a step‑by‑step account of any individual’s movements from Somalia to Britain.

3. What the record does not (and cannot) show about the journey from Somalia to England

Several investigators and commentators note a practical obstacle to definitive documentary proof: the collapse of centralized civil records in Somalia during and after the civil war means there are few accessible contemporaneous birth, marriage or travel documents that would conclusively map kinship and migration paths, and reporting repeats that limitation when assessing rival claims ^{[9] [4]}. The assembled sources therefore do not—and cannot from public materials—produce a verified chain of travel documents, asylum files or transport records showing exactly how Elmi left Somalia (or Kenya) and arrived in the U.K.

4. Competing narratives and what each relies on

Two competing narratives have circulated: one, advanced in parts of conservative media and some blogs, alleges the marriage to Elmi concealed a sibling relationship and implies the union facilitated immigration benefits ^{[9] [10]}. The other—supported by mainstream biographies and fact-checkers—relies on Omar’s public statements that Elmi was a friend turned husband who “moved home to England” after their faith-based divorce and on reporting that multiple siblings independently obtained asylum or citizenship in different countries ^{[1] [4] [5]}. Each side leans on fragmentary records and statements; conspiracy claims often rest on circumstantial name coincidences and gaps created by the lack of Somali civil registries ^{[9] [2]}.

5. What can be reliably concluded from the cited reporting

From the sources provided, it is reliable to conclude that Elmi lived in Britain, that Omar has said he returned to England after their faith‑divorce around 2011, and that several of Omar’s siblings were dispersed between the U.S. and the U.K. during the family’s refugee odyssey; what the sources do not provide is a definitive, documented account of how Elmi was separated from the family in Somalia and the precise legal or travel steps he used to reach the U.K. ^{[1] [4] [3] [2]}.