Ibrahim Megag Samatar (aka Ibrahim Maygaag Samatar; c. 1939 – 31 January 2011) was a Somali politician and economist.
He is said to have been born in
Hargeisa
Hargeisa ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Somaliland, a ''List of states with limited recognition, de facto'' sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, still considered internationally to be part of Somalia. It is also th ...
,
British Somaliland
British Somaliland, officially the Somaliland Protectorate (), was a protectorate of the United Kingdom in modern Somaliland. It was bordered by Italian Somalia, French Somali Coast and Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinia (Italian Ethiopia from 1936 ...
, but he was born in Qullad,
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
, a town between Hargeisa and
Aware
In philosophy and psychology, awareness is the perception or knowledge of something. The concept is often synonymous with consciousness. However, one can be aware of something without being explicitly conscious of it, such as in the case of blin ...
, Ethiopia.
He studied at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
and the
University of California, Riverside
The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...
in the United States, and returned to Somalia to become a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance. From 1970 to 1971, he was
Minister of Finance
A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position .
A ministry of finance's portfolio ...
in the cabinet of
Siad Barre
Mohammed Siad Barre (, Osmanya script: , ''Muhammad Ziād Barīy''; 6 October 1919 – 2 January 1995) was a Somali military officer, politician, and revolutionary who served as the third president of Somalia from 21 October 1969 to 26 Janu ...
, who came to power after the coup d'état. After serving as Minister of Industry, he defected to the United States in 1981 when he was Ambassador to
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
.
After his exile, he served as the North American representative of the
Somali National Movement
The Somali National Movement (, ) was one of the first and most important Guerrilla warfare, organized guerilla groups and Mujahideen groups that opposed the Siad Barre regime in the 1980s to the 1990s, as well as being the main anti-government f ...
Burao
Burao, also spelt Bur'o or Bur'ao (; , , ), is the capital of the Togdheer region and the second largest city in Somaliland. Burao was the site of the Somaliland Declaration of Independence, declaration of an independent Somaliland on 18 May 19 ...
, and was instrumental in Somaliland's independence. He was elected to the House of Representatives at the National Reconciliation Grand Council in Borama in 1993, but soon resigned and retired from politics. He came to Japan in 1997 and worked as a researcher at
Josai International University
, JIU, is a private university established in 1992, with two campuses, one in Tōgane, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, and one in Kioi-chō, Chiyoda-ku
, known as Chiyoda City in English, He died on 31 January 2011 at his home in
Tōgane
is a Cities of Japan, city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 57,780 in 26,907 households and a population density of 650 persons per km². The total area of the city is .
Tōgane is home to the ''K ...
,
Chiba Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...