Abdirizak Haji Hussein

Hussein died of pneumonia on 31 January 2014 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, after being hospitalized for a week.

After originally departing from Minneapolis, Hussein's body arrived in Istanbul, Turkey, where governmental officials awaited on 5 February 2014. The Somali National Funeral Committee announced that Hussein would be buried in Mogadishu's National Cemetery, with the official farewell event slated to start on Friday after the burial service. Three days of national mourning and the lowering of the flag would begin the same day.

On 7 February 2014, Hussein was laid to rest at a memorial service in Mogadishu Cemetery. The ceremony was attended by a number of dignitaries, including President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, Parliament Speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari, and Puntland President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, with security in the city concurrently bolstered. Janaza prayers were read at the capital's largest mosque, after which a burial service was held at the Al-Irfid cemetery on the outskirts of Mogadishu. Hussein was buried beside his former colleague, Aden Abdulle Osman Daar, the Somali Republic's first President. Incumbent President Mohamud sent his condolences to Hussein's family and the people of Somalia, and urged the gathered attendees to "pray for one of Somalia's greatest heroes[...] Abdirizak Haji Hussein was a great man and a towering Somali patriot[...] His life should be an example to all Somalis."

On May 6, 2001, an effort by the Transitional National Government (TNG) to create the National Commission for Reconciliation and Property Settlement (NCRPS), a 25-member working body, was stalled when Abdirizak Haji Hussein was named as its chief. The Somalia Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) and Puntland's then leadership opposed the bid. On July 25, 2001, Hussein resigned from the post.

Immediately after the 1969 Somali coup d'état that overthrew the civilian government, Hussein became a political prisoner and remained in detention from 1969 to April 1973. In 1974, he was appointed as Somalia's representative to the United Nations in 1974, and he held that position until 1979. During the Somali civil war, Hussein was called on several times to help reconcile the warring parties.

Osman ignored the results of the vote and again nominated Hussein as prime minister. After intraparty negotiation, which included the reinstatement of four party officials expelled for voting against him, Hussein presented a second cabinet list to the National Assembly that included all but one of his earlier nominees. However, the proposed new cabinet contained three additional ministerial positions filled by men chosen to mollify opposition factions. The new cabinet was approved with the support of all but a handful of SYL National Assembly members. Hussein remained in office until the presidential elections of June 1967.

The 1967 presidential elections, conducted by a secret poll of National Assembly members, pitted former prime minister Shermarke against Osman. Again the central issue was moderation versus militancy on the pan-Somali question. Osman, through Hussein, had stressed priority for internal development. Shermarke, who had served as prime minister when pan-Somalism was at its height, was elected president of the republic.

After the 1964 National Assembly election in March, a crisis occurred that left Somalia without a government until the beginning of September. President Osman, who was empowered to propose the candidate for prime minister after an election or the fall of a government, chose Abdirizak Haji Hussein as his nominee instead of the incumbent, Abdirashid Ali Shermarke, who had the endorsement of the SYL party leadership. Shermarke had been prime minister for the four previous years, and Osman decided that new leadership might be able to introduce fresh ideas for solving national problems.

Countrywide municipal elections, in which the Somali Youth League won 74 percent of the seats, occurred in November 1963. These were followed in March 1964 by the country's first post-independence national elections. Again the SYL triumphed, winning 69 out of 123 parliamentary seats. The party's true margin of victory was even greater, as the fifty-four seats won by the opposition were divided among a number of small parties.

In June 1955, Hussein was sent to the United Nations, where he presented a petition on the SYL's behalf. He was elected the party's Secretary General a few months later, and became a Member of Parliament for the Nugal District of the Mudug region in 1959. That same year, Hussein elected to the National Assembly in 1959. During this period, he was also the president of the Higher Institute of Law and Economics and would later go on to become the president of the University Institute. In the first post-independence government of Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, Hussein served as Minister of Interior from 1960 to 1962, and Minister of Public Works and Communications from 1962 to 1964.

In 1944, Hussein joined the Somali Youth League. He subsequently became a Galkayo Councillor in 1954, during the nation's first municipal elections.

The SYL's governing Central Committee and its parliamentary groups became split. Hussein had been a party member since 1944 and had participated in the two previous Shermarke cabinets. His primary appeal was to younger and more educated party members. Several political leaders who had been left out of the cabinet joined the supporters of Shermarke to form an opposition group within the party. As a result, the Hussein faction sought support among non-SYL members of the National Assembly.

From 1942 to 1949, Hussein served as an officer in the British Military Administration, including as an interpreter. He was also a clerk during the early periods of the Trust Territory of Somalia. In 1950, he was imprisoned for six months for protesting for Somali independence.

Abdirizak Haji Hussein (Somali: Cabdirisaaq Xaaji Xuseen; Arabic: عبد الرزاق حاجي حسين‎; 24 December 1924 – 31 January 2014) was a Somali diplomat and politician. He was the Prime Minister of Somali Republic from 14 June 1964 to 15 July 1967. From 1975 to early 1980, he also served as the country's ambassador to the United Nations. A former Secretary General of the Somali Youth League, Hussein played a leading role in the nation's early civilian administration.

Hussein was born in 1924 in Galkayo, the capital of the north-central Mudug region of Somalia. His family hailed from the Majeerteen Harti Darod clan. He studied the Qur'an under his father, Hajji Hussein Atosh, who was an authority on Islam.