Former Interim President of Somalia Passes Away in Nairobi Mogadishu (PP News Desk) — Ali Mahdi Mohamed, a former Interim President of Somalia and one-time hotelier, has passed away in a Nairobi hospital. The cause of the death was Covid-19. United Somali Congress installed Ali Mahdi as an Interim President in 1991, shortly after the overthrow of the military regime led by Mohammed Siad Barre. He was a member of the USC Central Committee. Although his political clout waned Ali Mahdi Mohammed was critical of the incumbent Federal Government of Somalia. Born in 1938, Mahdi was a key signatory of the historic 1990 Manifesto that called for Siyad Barre to relinquish power. General Mohammed Farah Aidid, a leader of USC military wing, had objected to the nomination of Ali Mahdi as an Interim President in July 1991 in Djibouti where reconciliation conference was held for representatives of Somalia’s armed opposition organisations.