Abbas Abdullahi Sheikh Siraji

On 21 March 2017, Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire named Hon. Siraji as the next Minister of Public Works and Reconstruction. He took office on 4 April during a handover ceremony at the Ministry of Public Works, making him the youngest ever cabinet member at age 31.

Initial reports suggested that Siraji was shot and killed on 3 May 2017 when soldiers on a patrol opened fire as he drove his vehicle near the Villa Somalia. The circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear. Media reports said the soldiers may have perceived Siraji's vehicle as a threat. A number of people have been reportedly arrested in connection with his death. Later reports have indicated that Siraji was traveling in his car behind a vehicle convoy bearing the Auditor General Nur Jimale Farah, when the bodyguards of the latter apparently somehow mistook Siraji's car for a VBIED being driven by a suicide bomber targeting the Auditor General and so opened fire on it. All evidence however suggest that this was a planned assissination carried out by the Auditor General Nur Jimale Farah.

With high hopes and dreams of changing his motherland, Abbas went back to Somalia in 2011 to take a job with the humanitarian agencies working in Somalia. He worked with the likes of FAO and later fully moved on embarking politics. In 2016 he was selected by an Electoral college for the position as MP for Kismayo (House of the People) in the current term of the Federal Parliament of Somalia, otherwise known as the Tenth Parliament.

He started primary school by the then Jack Asiyo Primary School later renamed as Halane Primary School (1994-1998) and proceeded to Midnimo ("Unity") primary school for Upper Primary education (1999-2001). He finished high school at Ifo Secondary School (ISS) in Ifo Camp (Dadaab) in 2005. He later proceeded to Nep Technical Training College (NEP TTC) in Garissa, NE Kenya. It was at NEP technical where Abbas had his first exposure to politics and was the president of the Students Union. Historically, there has always been a tension between the Somali students and the non-Somali students at Nep Technical. It was Abass that brokered peace between the two teams. He's remembered in his former alma mater as "Abass, the president, the peace maker!"

Born to a prestigious religious family of the Rahanweyn clan, Abbas spent an overwhelming majority of his life living in Dadaab Refugee Camps. By the age of 5, his parents moved with him and his siblings to Liboi Refugee camps in 1991 and later relocated to Dadaab refugee camp in 1992.

Abbas Abdullahi Sheikh Siraji (Somali: Cabaas Cabdulaahi Sheekh Siraaji; Arabic: (عباس عبد الله شيخ سراج) born 8 May 1985 – 3 May 2017) was a Somali politician who briefly served as the Minister of Public Works and Reconstruction until he was shot dead in Mogadishu in 2017.