Ahmed Abdi Da’ar, 67, of Hargeisa – Republic of Somaliland died October 21, 2016. He was born in Hargeisa. He was educated in the National Teacher Education Center (NTEC) and later attended Lafoole College of Education, BA in Secondary Teaching. He went on to receive his Diploma in Geography, Remote Sensing and GIS from Eastern Michigan University and his Masters from Texas Tech University in Arid & Semi-Arid Land Studies.
Professor Ahmed Abdi Da’ar has a long history in the liberation of Somaliland and later on it’s development. He was a pivotal member of SNM’s central committee in Ethiopia in the 1980’s and was its main representative in Sweden.
Professor Da’ar, reintroduced after the war in the 1980’s the first pre-service teacher training in Somaliland by successfully establishing the Somaliland Teacher Education College (STEC) almost single handedly in 2001. In Somaliland he promoted teacher training as a respectable field of study and work, where he output a number of successful groups of fresh teachers of both sexes into the Somaliland teaching force. On top of that, he narrowed the gap in the male to female ratio in the Somaliland teaching force. STEC became the forerunner of teacher training institutions in some parts of the Greater Horn region as others who sought, obtained and benefited from Professor Ahmed Da’ar’s advice.
Professor Da’ar convinced the late Somaliland, President Egal, to agree to permit him and other leading academics to open University of Hargeisa (UOH), after he was chosen to be its first president. Professor Da’ar, set the foundations for the University of Hargeisa (UOH) from scratch, cleared the campus from refugees, gave them land and moved them out, rebuilt the first buildings as offices, recruited the first group of deans, administered its day to day operations. In May 2013, he had set up Somaliland Peace & Development Consultancy (SPDC) in London, whom he was its Director, and on top of that he was an advisor to Somaliland Intellectuals Institute (SII) as well as being an important member of SII.
Professor Da’ar was a free writer, who would speak his mind eloquently, he had many interests, to mention a few he was interested in; herbal medicine, gardening, water harvesting, community self-help work, advising youth acquire education and skills and helping them secure jobs. Moreover, he had special interest in volunteering, environmental protection and impact analysis, international justice for the recognition of the Republic of Somaliland, re-designing Hargeisa and other Somaliland towns with new master plans.
A list of his most recent & significant articles:
1. An Open Letter to President Obama
2. Somaliland is Bullied out of its UN Membership
3. In reply to UK’s Ambassador to Somalia Matt Bough; s article “Opportunity, partnership and commitment.“ in 2013 – It is the fourteenth reply at the bottom of the article.
4. Somaliland: No New Agreements on Shared Offices with Somalia in Turkey
5. A Review or New Bradt Travel Guidebook Exclusive to Somaliland
Contributed by – Khalid Mohamed Ali – Somaliland Intellectuals Institute (SII) Coordinator
Khalid Mohamed Ali – Co-ordinator
