# Muse Hassan Sheikh Sayid Abdulle (Muuse Xasan Sheekh Cabdulle)

> Muse Hassan Sheikh Sayid Abdulle (born 1940): Somali general, acting president and interim speaker in August 2012, ambassador to Italy.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/muse-hassan-sheikh-sayid-abdulle/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Who is he?

Muse Hassan Sheikh Sayid Abdulle is a senior Somali military figure and politician ([Wikipedia, Muse Hassan Sheikh Sayid Abdulle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_Hassan_Sheikh_Sayid_Abdulle)). He served as acting president of Somalia and interim speaker of the Federal Parliament in 2012 (same source). He was later Somalia's ambassador to Italy, and is now retired (same source). This page records his public career.

## Birth and family

Wikipedia says he was born in 1940 in Shilabo, in the Ogaden ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_Hassan_Sheikh_Sayid_Abdulle)). It says he comes from the [Sheikh](/en/regions/sheikh/) Hassanur family, and gives his clan as the Bahgeri branch of the Ogaden (Absame, Darod) (same source). See [Somalis in Ethiopia](/en/diaspora/ethiopia/).

## Military career

He joined the [Somali National Army](/en/institutions/somali-national-army/) in 1959 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_Hassan_Sheikh_Sayid_Abdulle)). He was one of the first three Somali cadets to graduate from the Modena Military Academy in Italy, where he studied from 1959 to 1961 (same source). He trained further in Turin from 1961 to 1963 and at the war college in Civitavecchia from 1968 to 1970 (same source). See [the Somali armed forces, 1960 to 1991](/en/history/somali-armed-forces-1960-1991/).

Wikipedia lists these posts (same source):

- Commander of tank and motorised battalions in Hargeisa, 1965 to 1968.
- Commander of the 26th Division in Hargeisa, 1970 to 1971.
- Director of operations at the Ministry of Defence, 1971 to 1973.
- Military adviser and aide to the president, 1973 to 1976.
- Defence attaché in Rome, 1976 to 1979.
- Commandant of the Ahmed Gurey War College in Mogadishu, 1983 to 1984.
- Commander of the 60th Division in Baidoa, 1986 to 1989.

He became a colonel in 1974 and a brigadier general in 1986 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_Hassan_Sheikh_Sayid_Abdulle)). In 1985–86 he studied at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. (same source).

## Acting president, 2012

The mandate of the [Transitional Federal Government](/en/history/transitional-governments-2000-2012/) ended on 20 August 2012 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_Hassan_Sheikh_Sayid_Abdulle)). At the opening of the new Federal Parliament at Mogadishu's airport, he was named interim speaker as the oldest member (same source). At the same ceremony he was named acting president (same source).

On 28 August 2012 parliament elected [Mohamed Osman Jawari](/en/people/mohamed-osman-jawari/) as speaker (same source). On 30 August, Muse Hassan was made chair of the 15-member committee that ran the presidential vote (same source). That vote elected [Hassan Sheikh Mohamud](/en/people/hassan-sheikh-mohamud/) on 10 September 2012 ([Wikipedia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Sheikh_Mohamud)). Wikipedia's page on Muse Hassan gives the date as 1 September ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_Hassan_Sheikh_Sayid_Abdulle)).

## Ambassador to Italy

On 20 June 2013 the cabinet named him Somalia's ambassador to Italy ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_Hassan_Sheikh_Sayid_Abdulle)).

## In short

A general of the Somali National Army from 1959, acting president and interim speaker in August 2012, and later ambassador to Italy.

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