Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed (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 a rebel movement called SODAF which later became the SSDF [More]
Source: wikipedia.org |