Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (11 March 1962-) was Prime Minister of Somalia from 1 November 2010 to 19 June 2011 (succeeding Abdiwahid Gonjeh and preceding Abdiweli Gaas) and President from 16 February 2017 (succeeding Hassan Sheikh Mohamud).
Biography[]
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed was born in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1962, and he inherited his father's nickname Farmajo, coming from the Italian word for cheese. From 1985 to 1988, he worked as a secretary at the Somali embassy in the United States, and he later became Prime Minister of Somalia in 2010. In 2011, he was forced to resign as the Transitional Federal Government came to an end, leading to violent protests. He called on both the military and violent protesters to exercise restraint, assuring them that their demands would be heard. Mohamed then returned to work for the New York State Department of Transportation, and he founded the Tayo party in 2012. He won the 2017 presidential election despite allegations of vote-buying, and he called on al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, and the Islamic State to surrender and end the Somali Civil War. In August 2019, he renounced his American citizenship shortly after Donald Trump dramatically increased airstrikes against al-Shabaab, re-established the US diplomatic presence in Somalia, and gifted Mohamed a red trucker hat reading "Make Somalia Great Again". Under Mohamed, press freedom declined.