Muhammad Ali Samatar
| Mohammad Ali Samatar Maxamed Cali Samatar |
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| 5th Prime Minister of Somalia | |
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In office 1 February 1987 – 3 September 1990 |
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| President | Siad Barre |
| Preceded by | post abolished, 1970-87 |
| Succeeded by | Muhammad Hawadle Madar |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
1 January 1931 Eyl, Somalia |
| Died | 19 August 2016 (aged 85) Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Supreme Revolutionary Council |
| Alma mater | Frunze Military Academy |
| Religion | Islam |
Mohammad Ali Samatar (Somali: Maxamed Cali Samatar; 01 January 1931 – 19 August 2016) was a Somali politician and Lieutenant General. A senior member of the Supreme Revolutionary Council, he also served as the Prime Minister of Somalia from 1 February 1987 to 3 September 1990.
Samatar was born in 1931 in Somalia. He was born in Kismayo in southern Somalia.
For his post-secondary education, Samatar studied at the Frunze Military Academy in the former Soviet Union (Военная академия им. М. В. Фрунзе), an elite institution reserved for the most qualified officers of the Warsaw Pact armies and their allies.
A Lieutenant General in the Somali National Army (SNA), Samatar was a key figure in Somali politics throughout the 1970s and 1980s. During the Ogaden campaign of the late 1970s, he led all SNA units and their Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) affiliates. He also served as national Defense Minister from 1980 to 1986.
Samatar was a member of President Siad Barre's ruling Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC). In May 1986, Barre suffered serious injuries in a life-threatening automobile accident near Mogadishu, when the car that was transporting him smashed into the back of a bus during a heavy rainstorm. He was treated in a hospital in Saudi Arabia for head injuries, broken ribs and shock over a period of a month. Samatar, who was then serving as Vice President, subsequently served as de facto head of state for the next several months. Although Barre managed to recover enough to present himself as the sole presidential candidate for re-election over a term of seven years on December 23, 1986, his poor health and advanced age led to speculation about who would succeed him in power. Possible contenders included his son-in-law General Ahmed Suleiman Abdille, who was at the time the Minister of the Interior, in addition to Barre's Vice President Lt. Gen. Samatar.
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