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A former refugee at Dadaab camp became one of the first Muslim women elected to the United States Congress.
Ilhan Omar, a 36-year-old Somali refugee, who immigrated to the United States as a teenager, beat Republican Jennifer Zielinski to take Ellison’s seat.
“My success is not only for me but for every Somali, Muslim and minority group, particularly the young girls in the Dadaab refugee camp, where I lived before coming to the US,” Ms Omar declared.
Omar’s family fled Somalia in 1991 due to civil war. She spent four years in Dadaab until her family was cleared to emigrate to the US.
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They settled in Minnesota, which now has a large Somali-American community.
Ms Omar did not know English when she went to the US at the age 12. Eventually, she learnt the language by watching television.
Omar stated that President Trump’s “politics of fear” motivated her to vie for the seat.
She also faced Islamophobic attacks during her campaign from some conservative media outlets.
Some of those conservative media outlets claimed that she was once married to her brother and had ties to terrorists.
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the Federal government of the United States.
The legislature consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives (which Omar has been elected to) and the Senate.