Aden Abdulle Osman

Aden Abdulle Osman, politician: born Belet Weyne, Italian Somaliland 1908; President of Somalia 1960-67; married (eight children); died Nairobi 8 June 2007.

Aden Abdulle Osman will be remembered not only as Somalia's first president; he was also the first African leader to hand over power to a democratically elected successor. Elected in 1960, when the former British and Italian Somali colonies united to form the Republic of Somalia, Osman lost the 1967 presidential election and, unlike so many African leaders before and since, accepted his defeat graciously and gave up power.

Sadly, his successor, Abdirashid Ali Shermarke, did not have the opportunity to do the same. Shermarke was assassinated in 1969 and Mohamed Siad Barre led a coup that ushered in 22 years of military rule. Worse was to follow for Somalia as Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991 and the country fell apart, torn to pieces by warlords and clan militias. In the 16 years that have followed, Somalia has become a byword for anarchy with no functioning central government.

Somalia's descent into chaos greatly saddened Osman who had devoted his life to securing his homeland's independence. Born in 1908 in the town of Belet Weyne, near the border with Ethiopia, Osman joined the Somali Youth League (SYL) in 1944, a nationalist party which campaigned for the end of British and Italian rule. He quickly rose up the ranks, becoming secretary of the Belet Weyne branch in 1946, chairman of the national legislative assembly in 1956, and chairman of the SYL itself in 1958.

By the time Somalia won its independence, Osman was a popular national figure and was duly elected the new country's first head of state, leading the democratic government from 1960 to 1967.

Said Barre's regime, which had been propped up by US aid during the Cold War, began to teeter in 1990. Civil war had broken out, a precursor to the brutal clan wars that would later turn Somalia into a failed state. Along with around 100 other prominent Somali politicians, Osman signed a manifesto condemning the violence and calling for reconciliation. He was duly arrested, and remained imprisoned until the 1991 coup.

Following his release Osman moved back to his family farm in Janale in southern Somalia. During the numerous attempts at restoring government to the country, Osman played an increasingly peripheral role as illness and old age limited his involvement.

He died in a Kenyan hospital at the age of 99. The current crisis in Somalia, which has seen some of the worst fighting since 1991, had deeply saddened him, his family said. Somalia's fragile interim government, the 14th attempt at central rule since 1991, announced on Saturday that it would rename Mogadishu's international airport after Osman.

Steve Bloomfield