Hiiraan Online
Sunday, November 22, 2015
MOGADISHU (HOL) - One of the longest serving Somali diplomats, the Somalia ambassador to Egypt Abdullahi Hussein Mohamud, has died in Cairo aged 72 after an extended illness on Saturday night, his family announced.
Having joined the diplomatic service in 1987, Mr. Hussein, a former university professor has served as the Somalia's ambassador to Algeria from 1987-1990 before he was appointed as the ambassador to Egypt as well as the permanent representative to the Arab league in 1990s, two positions he held for 25 years before his death.
The holder of the Licentiate in Arabic from Al-Ulum university in Cairo, Mr. Hussein has chaired the Arab league foreign ministers summit in Cairo in 2000.
During his diplomatic services, ambassador Mohamud has also attended several Somalia reconciliation conferences in Djibouti, Addis Ababa and Cairo. He was also appointed as a parliamentarian before he resigned in 2000.
Born in 1943 in Iimey, a district in the Somali-ethnic region in Ethiopia, the late ambassador is survived by two wives and eight children.
Somalia's president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud sent condolences to the families of the diplomat and Somalis around the world as a whole on the death Mr. Hussein, describing him as “a visionary and a patriotic diplomat' who worked hard for the welfare of his nation.
The diplomat's death has also triggered an outpouring sympathy and condolences from Somalis who took to the social media to express their grief towards the death of the ambassador.
"My heart cries for the loss of that hero. May he rest in peace," said Ahmad Nur, in one hundreds Twitter threads mourning the death of the ambassador.