Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud

Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud "Silanyo" (Axmed Maxamed Maxamuud Siilaanyo, احمد محمد محمود سيلانيو; born 1938) is a Somaliland politician who was President of Somaliland from 2010 to 2017.

He is a long-time member of the government, having served as Minister of Commerce of the Somali Republic, and among other Cabinet positions.

Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud Silanyo was born in 1938 in the Mideastern town of Burco, situated in what was then the former British Somaliland protectorate.

Nicknamed "Silanyo" (meaning lizard in Somali), he hails from the Adan Madobe sub-division of the Habar Jeclo clan of Isaaq clan-family.

Ahmed M. Mohamoud Silanyo is the third child of six.

His father was a merchant marine; so, the family lived a half-nomadic, half-settled lifestyle.

He was the only child in the family to attend a formal education, fostered by an uncle who was a strong influence on his early life.

His brothers followed their father's footsteps as merchant marines.

He is Muslim.

He met his wife, Amina-Weris Sh.

Between 1946 and 1957, Mohamoud studied at schools in Sheekh and Amud, where he completed his secondary levels.

Upon graduation, he moved to England to pursue higher studies.

From 1958 to 1960, Mohamoud enrolled in London University and obtained an advanced General Certificate of Education (GCE).

Mohamed, in the late 1960s.

Like him, she completed her education as a registered nurse and midwife in England.

She is one of the pioneers of Somali educated women.

He then studied at University of Manchester, where he earned both a Bachelor's Degree (1960–1963) and a Master's Degree (1963–1965) in Economics.

Having successfully toppled the Siyad Barre regime in 1991, the SNM had been pivotal in reconstituting the Republic of Somaliland that on 1 July 1960, united with Somalia.

Presently, Somaliland is a sovereign democratic country, but is internationally recognized as an autonomous region of Somalia.

During the following years Mohamoud would become the SNM's longest-serving Chairman, in command throughout the most tumultuous, expansive, and decisive period of the liberation movement.

In a professional capacity, between 1965 and 1969, Mohamoud served as an official at the Ministry of Planning and Coordination in Mogadishu during Somalia's early civilian administration.

They married in Mogadishu in 1968.

She has been a strong partner, by his side throughout the long and turbulent times of his political career.

They have five children and seven grandchildren.

He was also the national Minister of Planning and Coordination (1969–1973), Minister of Commerce (1973–1978 and 1980–1982), and the Chairman of the National Economic Board (1978–1980) in the succeeding socialist government.

Although a member of Siad Barre's cabinet for many years, he was believed to not be involved in any acts of violence and embezzlement.

Therefore, allowing him to satisfy both the government and opposition at the time, paving way for his chairmanship of the Somali National Movement.

During the 1980s, he also served as the Chairman of the Somali National Movement.

To further accomplish this, Mohamoud embarked on a program of recruitment of important personalities and groups in southern Somalia to join the SNM movement—a 1982 through 1991 Somali liberation faction founded and led predominantly by Isaaq members to protect the national interests of the Somalilanders against the oppressive Siyad Barre regime.

From 1984 to 1990, Mohamoud was the Chairman of the Somali National Movement (SNM), serving as the liberation group's longest-serving chairman.

In 1984, the SNM was in its infancy, having been established only two years earlier.

The struggle was nebulous.

This period was being steered through its most trying times.

Between 1993 and 1997, Mohamoud was a member of the House of Representatives of Somaliland.

He also worked as the Somaliland Minister of Finance from 1997 to 1999, in which position he initiated a program of fiscal reform.

Between 1999 and 2000, Mohamoud served as Somaliland's Minister of Planning and Coordination, a position from which he resigned in 2001.

During his years of public service, Mohamoud participated in a broad array of forums relating to a variety of developmental aspects of the world.

Notably, utilizing training programs under the auspices of the United Nations (United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)), as well as benefiting from a Leadership Grant organized by the African-American Institute that related to developmental fields, including visits to various regional state and federal governmental bodies throughout the United States.

During the earlier years of the SNM, Mohamoud established offices and organized SNM committees throughout Europe, North America, and the Arab World to raise international awareness of the liberation movement and the brutality of Somalia's Siyad Barre regime against its own people through presentations to international human rights groups, the press media, various European government bodies, including the British Parliament and the European Inter-Parliamentary Union, and relevant organizations in the Arab and Islamic world.

Standing as an opposition candidate, he was elected as President of Somaliland in Somaliland's 2010 presidential election.