Founder and chief ideologue of the Yemeni Socialist Party, he was South Yemen's de facto leader from 1978 to 1980 and died in the 1986 civil war.
A South Yemeni revolutionary leader central to the Yemeni Socialist Party’s formation in 1978. He left power in 1980 and stayed in the USSR, then returned and opposed Ali Nasir Muhammad. He died during the armed party conflict in 1986.
Career timeline
1963Co-founded the NLF and led its underground fedayeen in Aden
1967Minister of Culture, National Guidance and Yemeni Unity
1969NLF Central Committee Secretary-General, de facto leader
1971Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Council (head of state)
1978Founded the Yemeni Socialist Party, its first General Secretary
1979Signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the USSR
1980Resigned all posts citing health, then moved to Moscow
1985Returned and rejoined the YSP Central Committee as Secretary
Sentenced to death by Ali Nasir Muhammad in the January 1986 clashes, he survived and rose to General Secretary of the Yemeni Socialist Party.
A South Yemeni revolutionary who led the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen through its final years as General Secretary of the Yemeni Socialist Party. An ally of Abdul Fattah Ismail, he survived the January 1986 fighting in Aden, and after Ali Nasir Muhammad's forces were defeated he took over the party and state. He became the first vice-president of unified Yemen in 1990, but resigned in 1993 and proclaimed the short-lived Democratic Republic of Yemen during the 1994 civil war; in exile he led the southern independence movement al-Hirak.
Career timeline
1963Joined the NLF and founded its local committee in Mukalla
1967–1969Minister of Defense
1978Elected Politburo member and Central Committee secretary at the YSP founding congress
1986–1990General Secretary of the YSP, South Yemen's last leader
1990–1993Vice-president of unified Yemen
1994President of the Democratic Republic of Yemen (21 May to 7 July), exiled to Oman after its failure
2009–Leader of the southern independence movement, al-Hirak
Yemeni socialist politician and advocate of unity and pluralism
On 28 December 2002 he was shot dead in Sanaa minutes after addressing the Islah party's conference; he was deputy secretary-general of the Yemeni Socialist Party.
Born in 1942 in the village of Kuhal in Yemen's Ibb province, he studied Islamic law in Dhamar and Sanaa and took part in the defence of Sanaa during the seventy-day siege. He helped found the Yemeni Revolutionary Democratic Party in 1968, was imprisoned for three years after the events of August 1968 in Sanaa, moved to Aden in 1971 and was elected to the Politburo in 1972. A founder of the Yemeni Socialist Party in 1978, he served as minister of culture and tourism in unified Yemen and became a leading advocate of human rights, political pluralism and the opposition coalition.
Career timeline
1960Joined the Arab Nationalists' Movement
1968Co-founder and Central Committee member, Yemeni Revolutionary Democratic Party
1972Elected to the Politburo of the Yemeni Socialist Party
1978Founding member of the Yemeni Socialist Party
1993Minister of culture and tourism of unified Yemen
2002Deputy secretary-general of the Yemeni Socialist Party
