Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed

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Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed
8th President of Somalia
Incumbent
Assumed office  October 14, 2004
Preceded by	Abdiqasim Salad Hassan
Succeeded by	—
Born	December 15, 1934 Galkacyo, Mudug Region
Religion	Islam

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed (Somali: Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed) (b. December 15, 1934) is a veteran Somali politician, and the current transitional President of Somalia.

Ahmed was born in the town of Galkacyo, in the Mudug Region, and is a member of the Darod, one of Somalia's largest clans. He was elected as President of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), by a session of the Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) held in neighbouring Kenya's capital, Nairobi, on October 10, 2004, and sworn in on October 14, 2004.

He was among the first cadet officials sent to Italy in 1957, together with General Mohamed Farah Aideed and others.^{[citation needed]} Since then he remained in the Army and participated in the war of 1964 and the Ogaden War of 1977, and was decorated for bravery in both wars.^{[citation needed]} In 1978 Col Yusuf together with a group of officials mostly from his own Majeerteen (Daarood) clan participated a failed coup attempt against regime of General Siad Barre. He escaped to Kenya, then to Ethiopia where he started the first rebel movement ever established in Ethiopia, known as SODAF which later became the SSDF.^{[citation needed]}

Later he became President of Puntland state. In the 2004 election he defeated all the notable leaders of Somalia including Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, Cadow and all the warlords of Mogadishu. His government, backed by considerable Ethiopian forces, successfully defeated the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) led by Hassan Dahir Aweys. The Ethiopian forces marched into Mogadishu on the last day of the year 2006.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) 1.2 President of Puntland 1.2.1 Implicated in extrajudicial killings 1.3 Transitional Federal Government (TFG) 2 Assassination Attempt 3 Notes

[edit] Career

[edit] Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF)

In September 1978 Abdullahi Yusuf, as a former army officer in the Somali National Army (SNA), founded the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) guerrilla movement aimed at ousting the Somali dictator Siad Barre.^[1]

[edit] President of Puntland

In the 1990s Ahmed emerged as the pre-eminent leader of his native Puntland region; he declared the territory autonomous in 1998. On July 23, 1998 he became the President of Puntland and served in this position until his term expired on July 1, 2001. However, after this he continued to declare himself to be the President of Puntland and started a military campaign against the new leadership, which had elected Jama Ali Jama in November 2001. In May 2002 he gained control of Puntland's capital and was recognized as President of Puntland again, though rebellions continued until 2003. Ahmed then continued serving as President of Puntland until October 2004 when he resigned to become President of Somalia. He is said to have an authoritarian approach to leadership.^[2]

[edit] Implicated in extrajudicial killings

The U.S. Department of State, in its 2002 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, identifies milita members loyal to Ahmed as being responsible for at least two deliberate killings of non-combatants while he was president of the disputed regional state of Puntland:

• On January 11, 2002, Garah Mohammed Said Gom'ad, a prominent businessman, was reportedly killed by forces of Yusuf Ahmed in a deliberate attack in which Yusuf's militia reportedly stopped his car and Gom'ad was fatally shot.
• On August 17 2002, Sultan Ahmed Mohammed Hurre, a British citizen, was killed by bodyguards in the employ of Yusuf Ahmed as their respective convoys passed each other approximately two miles south of the Puntland town of Garowe. Hurre was known for opposing the extension of Ahmed's presidency in the state of Puntland;^[3] according to the press reports, he was targeted by Ahmed for arrest as a religious extremist. Ahmed later claimed that the killing was accidental, but witnesses claimed otherwise.

The Country Report says that by the end of 2002 no action had been taken against those responsible for the killings.^[4]

Militias associated with Yusuf Ahmed have also been implicated in the killings of Col. Farah Mohamed Said ("Farah Dheere") in Garowe in 2002,^[5] and of traditional leader Malaaq Seemow Abdi Garuunin Baidoa, on June 9, 2006.^[6]

[edit] Transitional Federal Government (TFG)

On October 10, 2004, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was elected by the Transitional Federal Parliament to the position of President of Somalia. Abdullahi Yusuf got 189 votes from the TFG Parliament, while the closest contender got 79 votes.^[7]

As President, he pledged to promote reconciliation and to set about rebuilding the country. However, his government has been plagued by internal disagreements and contentions with other power-holders in Somalia. For example, he was at loggerheads with some warlords and government members over where the administration should be based. The president and prime minister opposed a move to Mogadishu, citing security reasons. He helped to relocate the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs) along with his Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi and the Speaker of the Parliament Sharif Adan from Nairobi to the cities of Jowhar and mainly Baidoa, where the TFG resided until the government took control of Mogadishu.

The make up of a possible foreign peacekeeping force – in particular the inclusion of Ethiopian troops – is another bone of contention. Ethiopia has been accused of backing rival Somali warlords in order to keep the country weak. The IGASOM mission therefore excludes countries neighboring Somalia from participating in peacekeeping.

In May 2006, the Second Battle of Mogadishu started and CNN reported that there were Transitional government forces in action, but Abdullahi Yusuf told the BBC the alliance of warlords were not fighting on behalf of the government and threatened to fire them.^[8] Indeed, members of the government who were part of the warring Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) were sacked. Others left the government in disaffection after the victories of the Islamic Court Union.

An arrangement was made with the Islamic Court Union in Khartoum on 5 September 2006. The interim-government of Yusuf Ahmed and the Islamic Court Union were to merge into a new transistory government of Somalia. The Islamic Court Union had the precondition that the Ethiopian army should leave the country. The rise of the Islamists damaged Yusuf's dream of establishing central rule in Somalia for the first time in fifteen years.^[9]

[edit] Assassination Attempt

On September 18, 2006, a suicide car bomber smashed his vehicle into the President's convoy outside the National Parliament in Baidoa. The attack killed four of the President's bodyguards, as well as the President's brother. Six attackers were also killed in the subsequent gun battle. The President's life was most likely saved by the fact that he travelled in the second vehicle in the convoy rather than the front one, a decoy. The Islamic Court's Union, which had recently taken control of much of the country were blamed for the attack. |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5356126.stm |title=Somali leader survives bomb blast |publisher=BBC |date=2006-09-18 |accessdate=2007-02-03}}</ref>

After the beginning of the War in Somalia on December 21, 2006, with the help of Ethiopia, the TFG forces took control of Somalia and the capital, Mogadishu, from the hands of the Islamic Courts Union. By 28 December the Transitional Federal Government captured Mogadishu as the ICU forces fled.

On January 8, 2007 as the Battle of Ras Kamboni raged, TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed entered Mogadishu for the first time since being elected. It was announced the government would be relocated to Villa Somalia, in Mogadishu, from its interim location at Baidoa. The first time a Somali government controlled the whole country since 1991^[10]

[edit] Notes

Preceded by Abdiqasim Salad Hassan

President of Somalia 2004 –

Succeeded by –