Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed عبدالله يوسف أحمد
8th President of Somalia
In office 14 October 2004 – 29 December 2008
Prime Minister	Muhammad Abdi Yusuf Ali Muhammad Ghedi Salim Aliyow Ibrow Nur Hassan Hussein Mohamoud Mohamed Gacmodhere (Unrecognised)
Preceded by	Abdiqasim Salad Hassan
Succeeded by	Adan Mohamed Nuur Madobe (Acting)
Personal details
Born	(1934-12-15) 15 December 1934 Gaalkacyo, Somalia
Political party	TFG

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed ([Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help), Arabic: عبدالله يوسف أحمد) (born December 15, 1934) is a veteran Somali politician and was the transitional President of Somalia from 2004 until 2008.

Biography

Ahmed was born in 1934 in the town of Gaalkacyo situated in the north-central Mudug region of Somalia. He later joined the Somali army, and was among the first cadet officials sent to Italy in 1957, together with Mohamed Farrah Aidid and others. As an army officer, Ahmed participated in the Somali-Ethiopian wars of 1964 and 1977. He was decorated for bravery in both conflicts, but remained a colonel throughout his military career.

In 1978, Ahmed, together with a group of officials mostly from his own Majeerteen (Darod) clan, participated in a failed coup attempt against the regime of then President of Somalia, Mohamed Siad Barre. Yusuf escaped to Kenya, then to Ethiopia where he started a rebel movement called SODAF, which later became the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).

Disagreements arose between Yusuf and his Ethiopian hosts when Somalia and Ethiopia signed a pact in 1984 to not support opposing militias who were based in each other's respective countries. For his refusal to obey Ethiopian generals, Yusuf was sent to jail where he remained for five years until his release when the then-ruling Dergue was overthrown in 1991.

Yusuf later became President of the semi-autonomous Puntland macro-region in northern Somalia.

On October 10, 2004, in a session held by the Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP), Yusuf was elected as President of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). He was sworn in a few ways later on October 14, 2004.

Career

Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF)

In September 1978, Ahmed, as a former army officer in the Somali National Army (SNA), founded the SSDF, a guerrilla movement aimed at ousting the Somali dictator Siad Barre.

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.

Implicated in extrajudicial killings

The United States Department of State, in its 2002 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, identifies militia 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 Garoowe. Hurre was known for opposing the extension of Ahmed's presidency in the state of Puntland; 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.

Militias associated with Yusuf Ahmed have also been implicated in the killings of Farah Mohamed Said ("Farah Dheere") in Garowe in 2002.

Transitional Federal Government (TFG)

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

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 Hassan Sheikh Aden 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 African Union Mission to Somalia (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 Ahmed told the BBC the alliance of warlords were not fighting on behalf of the government and threatened to fire them. 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 Courts Union.

Assassination attempt

On September 18, 2006, a suicide car bomber smashed his vehicle into Ahmed's convoy outside the National Parliament in Baidoa. The attack killed four of Ahmed's bodyguards, as well as Ahmed's brother. Six attackers were also killed in the subsequent gun battle. Ahmed'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, was blamed for the attack.

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 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. This marks the first time since the fall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991 that with the help of the Ethiopian troops, a Somali government controlled the most of the country. However, it wasn't to last. The Islamists regrouped and took back most of their territories. If the Ethiopian troops withdrew, the Somali government would collapse because its national army is not well trained.

Health problems

Yusuf underwent a liver transplant in the 1990s. In early December 2007 he was admitted to a hospital in Nairobi for treatment of what his spokesman described as bronchitis, and on January 4, 2008 he collapsed in Baidoa and was taken to Ethiopia for treatment. Two days later, he was rushed to London for tests. He returned to Mogadishu on February 16, 2008; rebels promptly fired mortars at the presidential compound, reportedly wounding at least five people.

Dismissal of government

In the second half of 2008, Yusuf had been at loggerheads with Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein over a proposed new cabinet, the latter of which Yusuf characterized as no more than a "clan deal".

On December 14, 2008, Yusuf announced that he had dismissed Hussein and his government, citing corruption, inefficiency, treason and failure to bring peace to the war-torn country as reasons for the dismissal. Earlier in the year, Hussein had survived a vote of no confidence after having been accused by some lawmakers of embezzling state funds.

Hussein said that Yusuf did not have the power to fire him without parliamentary approval, while Yusuf asserted that he believed Parliament would endorse the dismissal. Parliament supported Hussein in a vote on December 15, but Yusuf nevertheless appointed Mohamoud Mohamed Guled as Prime Minister to replace Hussein on December 16.

On December 21, Radio Garowe reported that 80 members of parliament held a conference in Baidoa where they all agreed that the vote of confidence in support of Hussein's government never took place. Ismail Ali Nur, who spoke on behalf of the dissenting lawmakers, indicated that Somalia's constitution requires a parliament quorum of no less than 139 MPs present for votes, but that "only 95 MPs" showed up as opposed to the 143 members of parliament claimed by Speaker Adan "Madobe" Mohamed. Nur also urged people to "watch video footage recorded from that session."

On December 24, the newly-appointed Prime Minister Guled announced his resignation, citing that he did not wish to be "seen as a stumbling block to the peace process which is going well now."

Following Guled's resignation, Abdirashid Sed, who was close to Yusuf, said that Yusuf would announce his resignation and retirement from politics at a special session of Parliament on December 29. According to Sed, Yusuf made this decision "because he does not want to be seen as an obstacle to peace in Somalia".

Resignation

On December 29, 2008, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed announced before a united parliament in Baidoa his resignation as President of Somalia. In his speech, which was broadcast on national radio, Yusuf expressed regret at failing to end the country's 17 year conflict as his government had mandated to do.

He also blamed the international community for its failure to support the government, and said that the speaker of parliament, Aden "Madobe" Mohamed, would succeed him in office per the Transitional Federal Government's Charter.

While a few observers have suggested that Yusuf's resignation adds chaos to the country's political landscape as Ethiopia withdraws its troops, some diplomats have suggested that Yusuf's resignation might improve the prospects of striking a deal with the more moderate Islamist insurgents.

Yusuf was initially reported to have flown out of Baidoa back to his native Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northern Somalia. He then arrived in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, on January 20, along with his wife and 17 family members and guards. A Yemeni government official said that Yusuf expressed a desire to live in Yemen, but no political asylum has been discussed yet. The official continued that he thought Yusuf wanted to live in Yemen for a short period before perhaps seeking medical treatment in the United Kingdom.