The last leader of South Yemen
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