Hiiraan Online
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
BELEDWEYNE (HOL) – Thousands of people including relatives, officials and elders have attended the funeral clan leader who died in the central Somali town of Beledweyne on Sunday.
Ugas Abdirahman Ugas Khalif, the chieftain of of Hawadle clan has died after sudden illness at the provincial capital of Hiiraan region.
His coffin was carried through the town as grief-stricken families and friends transported his coffin to Halgan, a remote town in the region where revered sheikhs and chieftains from the region are usually
buried in Tuesday.
As the funeral was taking place, social media has also been filled with tributes, images and prayers mourning for the chieftain’s death, calling him a ‘great figure’.
Somali leaders and ordinary citizens around the world united in an outpouring tribute for his tragic sudden death.
Born in Buloburte town in 1957, Mr. Khalif has graduated from a primary school in his hometown in 1973 before he moved to Jowhar town in Middle Shabelle region for Middle School studies.
He graduated from the Somali National University in 1982, before he started an internship work at the ministry of animal husbandry in Balad town, 30 km north of Mogadishu before he was picked as the
coordinator of the ministry’s operations, a position he held from
1984-1991.
He also worked as the head of the Pan-Africa project for Polioencephalomalacia in cows’ eradication project from 1989-1991.
During his professional career, Ugas Abdirahman has also worked for OXFAM Base and Italian aid organization TRE NOVE before he was inaugurated as a clan leader in 2001, replacing his father who died in the same year. He left behind a wife and two daughters.
He’s considered to be one of the few educated clan leaders in Somalia where clan leaders are elected because of their wisdom and intellect.