Former Somali defense minister dies in US

MINNEAPOLIS (HOL) – The former Somali defense minister Hussein Sheikh Abdirahman has died aged 75 in a hospital in the United States, family announced on Monday.

Mr. Abdirahman, the first civilian official who served as the defence minister under Siad Barre’s regime in 1989-1990 has died after months of illness in a hospital in Minneapolis.

Born in Aware, a town in the Ethiopian Somali region in 1941, Mr. Abdirahman has held various positions in Somalia before warlords overthrew the central government in 1990s.

Having moved to the United States in 1991, the former defence minister who has not been seen in public for months has since worked as a community service leader for the Somali community in the United States.

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His former colleagues described him as a ‘hardworking and committed’ forged from years he worked as the Mogadishu magistrate court’s chief, the country’s attorney general, Sanaag region’s commissioner as well as Mudug appeals court’s chief.

His political career was boosted by years he spent working in the justice system, drawing the attention of the former Somali president Siad Barre who chose him to become his defense minister, in the face
of criticism of picking a man with no military background to lead the country’s defence system.

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