Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur

For the executed Somali politician, see Abdirahman Ahmed

HE Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur
عبد الرحمن أحمد علي الطور
President of Somaliland
In office
28 May 1991 – 16 May 1993
Succeeded by Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal
Personal details
Died 8 November 2003
Religion Sunni Islam

Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur (Somali: Cabdiraxmaan Axmed Cali Tuur, Arabic: عبد الرحمن أحمد علي الطور‎) (var. "Tur", "Tour", meaning "Hunchback"[1]) was a Somali politician. He was the first President of Somaliland, a self-declared republic that is internationally recognized as an autonomous region of Somalia.

Biography

Tuur was born in 1931 in Burao, then a part of the British Somaliland protectorate. He hailed from the Isaaq clan.[2]

In a professional capacity, Tuur worked as a government official and diplomat in Somalia's post-independence government. He later became the Chairman of the Somali National Movement (SNM), a guerilla force mainly drawn from his Isaaq clan, which was attempting to topple former President of Somalia Siad Barre's military regime. Although the SNM at its inception had a unionist constitution, it eventually began to pursue a separatist agenda, looking to secede from the rest of Somalia. Under Tuur's leadership, the local administration declared the northwestern Somali territories independent on 18 May 1991. He then became the newly established Somaliland polity’s first President, but subsequently renounced the separatist platform in 1994. Tuur concurrently began instead to publicly seek and advocate reconciliation with the rest of Somalia under a power-sharing federal system of governance.[3] In doing so, he also represented the interests of many other Isaaq members, who were against secession; particularly those within his own sub-clan.[2] Tuur additionally lent some support to the UNOSOM peace-building mission in the southern regions. This alienated him from Somaliland's succeeding government as well as certain former followers.[4]

When support for Tuur in southern Somalia failed to materialise, he was exiled to London UK for almost a decade, before returning to Somaliland on 10 February 2003, 9 months before his death on 8 November 2003.

Notes

  1. ↑ Issue Paper: SOMALIA, UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN THE NORTH (SOMALILAND), Research Directorate of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, January 1995
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Diedrich Westermann, Edwin William Smith, Cyril Daryll Forde (2009). Africa, Volume 79, Issues 1-4. Oxford University Press. p. 259.
  3. ↑ Somaliland’s Quest for International Recognition and the HBM-SSC Factor
  4. ↑ Somaliland and Peace in the Horn of Africa: A Situation Report and Analysis, M. Bryden, UN Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia Drafted 13 November 1995. Updated/edited version Published in African Security Review Vol 13 No 2, 2004.

References

Political offices
New title President of Somaliland
1991 – 1993 		Succeeded by
Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal