Ali Mahdi Mohammed

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Ali Mahdi Mohammed

Ali Mahdi Mohammed ( Arabic علي مهدي محمد) (* 1939 ) is a Somali politician and warlord who proclaimed himself the new president of the country in 1991 after the overthrow of the dictator Siad Barre . The choice of name Mahdi is intended to remind of a former Somali national hero, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan .

Although Mahdi was chairman of the United Somali Congress (USC), which played the leading role in the capture of Mogadishu and the overthrow of Barre, his claim to be automatically appointed as the new president met with opposition from USC militia leader Mohammed Farah Aidid . In 1991 the USC, the capital and the country split. A civil war began and the UNOSOM could not reconcile the rival parties.

Although Aidid was proclaimed counter-president after the US troops withdrew, his most important financier and ally, Osman Hassan Ali "Ato", switched to Mahdi and formed an unstable council of state with him and Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed since 1997, in which Mahdi only held the presidency more, but was not considered president. Aidid's successors and allies formed a kind of counter-government.

With the agreement on two further interim governments or interim presidents since 2000 ( see Somalia interim government ), Mahdi largely disappeared into insignificance.