Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke was the prime minister of Somalia from 1960 to 1964 and the country’s president from July 1967 until his assassination in October 1969.
He is the father of former Somali prime minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke.
Abdirashid was born in central Somalia in the 1910s to the Darod clan and grew up in the capital Mogadishu.
He was a member of the Somali Youth League political party and studied at the Sapienza University of Rome.
Abdirashid was elected to Somalia’s Legislative Assembly before the country’s independence in 1960.