Religion Sunni Islam Name Abdirahman Ali | Role Politician Died 2004, Somaliland, Somalia | |
Succeeded by Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal | ||
For the executed Somali politician, see Abdirahman Ahmed
Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur (Somali: Cabdiraxmaan Axmed Cali Tuur, Arabic: عبد الرحمن أحمد علي الطور) (var. "Tur", "Tour", meaning "Hunchback") (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
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. In doing so, he also represented the interests of many other Isaaq members, who were against secession; particularly those within his own sub-clan. 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.
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.