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Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed (Somali: Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed, Arabic: عبدالله يوسف أحمد) (born December 15, 1934) is a veteran Somali politician and was the President of Somalia from 2004 until 2008.
Ahmed was born in 1934 in the town of Gaalkacyo situated in the north-central Mudug region of Somalia. He later joined the Somali army, and was among the first cadet officials sent to Italy in 1957, together with Mohamed Farrah Aidid and others. As an army officer, Ahmed participated in the Somali-Ethiopian wars of 1964 and 1977. He was decorated for bravery in both conflicts, but remained a colonel throughout his military career.
In 1978, Ahmed, together with a group of officials mostly from his own Majeerteen (Darod) clan, participated in a failed coup attempt against the regime of then President of Somalia, Mohamed Siad Barre. Yusuf escaped to Kenya, then to Ethiopia where he started a rebel movement called SODAF, which later became the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).