Mohamed Ali Nur

Nur was born on 12 October 1962 in Mogadishu, Somalia, where he spent his childhood.

He is the eldest in a family of six siblings.

His father, Ali Nur "Americo", worked as a foreman in a borehole-drilling company.

Later, he ran a chain of restaurants and a rental car service in Mogadishu.

He also had an interest in real estate.

His mother was a housewife who died when he was 9 years old.

The nickname "Americo" was passed to Nur from his father whose fondness for American cowboy hats earned him that sobriquet from his friends, following the Somali tradition for nicknames.

Nur received his primary and high school education in Mogadishu.

He then proceeded to Montgomery College, Maryland, United States where he studied economics before enrolling at the University of Maryland to further this study.

Upon graduation in 1985, Nur returned to Somalia and in 1986 he began working at the Central Bank of Somalia (CBS) as the head of the accounting department.

He also helped to manage his father's chain of businesses in Mogadishu.

Nur married and had his first child when he was 26.

He served at the Central Bank until the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 and the collapse of the central government.

In 1992, heavily armed men attacked his home in Mogadishu in search of valuables.

In the process, his 18-month-old daughter lost her life when a grenade was thrown into the courtyard where she was playing.

He led the campaign that repossessed the prime embassy property in Nairobi that had been irregularly sold to private individuals in 1994 after the collapse of the Somalia government.

The deteriorating security situation in Somalia led Nur and his family to relocate to the U.S. where he lived and worked before relocating to Canada in 2000.

In 2004, Nur flew to Nairobi at the request of the newly appointed prime minister of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia, Ali Mohamed Ghedi, whose government was initially based in the Kenyan capital.

Nur was appointed the director-general of the prime minister's office.

In 2006, the TFG relocated to Somalia, first to the south-western town of Baidoa and later to Jowhar, a city in central Somalia, but Nur remained in Nairobi.

Along with a team he began efforts to reopen Somalia's embassy that had ceased operations nearly 17 years earlier at the collapse of the government.

The embassy was officially reopened in 2006, which was widely welcomed by the Somali nationals in Kenya and around the globe.

Nur initially served as Charge-de-Affaires of the embassy.

Mohamed Ali Nur, popularly known as "Ambassador Americo", was the Somali Ambassador to Kenya from October 2007 to April 2015.

In 2007, Nur played a key role in the reopening of the Somali Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, which had been closed for 17 years due to the outbreak of the Somali Civil War.

In October 2007, he was appointed the substantive ambassador.

He officially started work after presenting his diplomatic credentials to Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki at State House, Nairobi, on 19 October 2007.

The position of Somalia envoy to Kenya and Kenya–Somalia relations are considered important within Somali political and diplomatic circles, as Kenya is considered a strategic country hosting thousands of Somali refugees and investments by Somali nationals.

Nur led efforts to repossess embassy property in Nairobi that had been irregularly sold to private individuals after the collapse of the Somali government.

He also supports education, health, water and environmental conservation initiatives in Somalia through Yasmin Foundation, a non-profit organization he established with his family in 2010, in memory of his late daughter.

In December 2010, after a three-year court battle, Kenya's High Court ruled in favour of the Somali government.

In 2013, a tripartite agreement was negotiated and signed by Kenya, Somalia, and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), facilitating the voluntary and dignified repatriations of Somali refugees in Kenya.

As a result of the agreement, thousands of refugees returned to Somalia while others await repatriation.

Nur cited as his other accomplishments increased trade and passenger flights between Somalia and Kenya.

During his term, the Somali embassy in Nairobi became the coordination office for United Nations and international NGOs providing humanitarian assistance and support projects inside Somalia.

It also provided consular support services for Somali nationals.

In 2013, the embassy became the first of Somalia's diplomatic missions to issue a new Somali passport.

Nur emerged as a symbol of reconciliation in a war-torn Somalia in September 2014 when he unconditionally forgave a man who confessed to being part of a gang that killed his 18-month-old daughter in 1992.

Since then, he has sought to use his story to promote reconciliation and peace in Somalia.

He was also a candidate in the 2017 Somali presidential election.