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 | |
| Born | 1931 Burao, British Somaliland |
| Died | 8 November 2003 |
Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur ([Cabdiraxmaan Axmed Cali Tuur] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help), Arabic: عبد الرحمن أحمد علي الطور) (var. "Tur", "Tour", meaning "Hunchback"[1]) (1931-2003) 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 Ishaq clan of Habar Yoonis [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 Ishaq 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
- ^ Issue Paper: SOMALIA, UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN THE NORTH (SOMALILAND)[permanent dead link], Research Directorate of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, January 1995
- ^ a b Diedrich Westermann, Edwin William Smith, Cyril Daryll Forde (2009). Africa, Volume 79, Issues 1-4. Oxford University Press. p. 259.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Somaliland’s Quest for International Recognition and the HBM-SSC Factor
- ^ 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 Archived June 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
References
- Somalia - Worldstatesmen.com
- "Somaliland: The Other Somalia with No War", Suliman Baldo in The Nation (Nairobi), 30 June 2006, The Nation (Nairobi)
- THE SECRETARY-GENERAL'S REPORT, ABDIRAHMAN "TUUR", AND SOMALILAND, SOMALIA News Update, Vol 3, No 16, May 28, 1994. ISSN 1103-1999
