NAIROBI (AFP) — Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was hospitalised in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Tuesday, amid conflicting reports on the seriousness of the 72-year-old's condition.
"The Somali president has been admitted here. He is in serious condition," said one hospital official, who declined to be identified.
A presidential aide confirmed Yusuf was admitted at Nairobi Hospital but played down the health risk, insisting he would be travelling abroad shortly.
Mauro Saio, a doctor at the exclusive Nairobi hospital, said Yusuf had been admitted with a chest infection.
"He had a cough for two or three days ... he decided to come and have a check, which we have done and haven't found anything serious," he told reporters.
Yusuf has suffered chronic health problems and survived a 2006 suicide car bomb attack that killed his brother and four of his bodyguards.
In recent weeks, he had seemed frail during some public appearances, had lost weight and suffered from heavy shaking.
He is believed to be one of the world's longest-surviving liver transplantees and his ill health has been a source of concern in Somali political circles as well as among his foreign supporters.
Fears over the health of Somalia's strongman cast further doubt over the future of a country already beset by a protracted political stalemate, one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis and daily fighting between Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government forces.
Members of his entourage said he was still expected to travel to Europe, where he had been scheduled to go soon for a regular medical check-up.
Yusuf had also been due to hold talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to Addis Ababa this week, but Somali sources in Ethiopia said he would not make it to the meeting.
The Somali ambassador there, Said Yusuf Nur, also denied reports that Yusuf's health was failing. "Its nothing serious, he won't stay there much. He'll also speak to some officials during his stay," he told AFP.
According to diplomatic sources, Yusuf's attendance at the upcoming Europe-Africa summit has also been cancelled.
Yusuf was sworn in as the president of Somalia in October 2004 and had recently tightened his grip on the faltering transitional administration when Ali Mohammed Gedi resigned as prime minister.
Gedi is from the largest Somali clan, the Hawiye, and Yusuf from the second largest, the Darod.
A career soldier who fought against former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, Yusuf has the reputation of being a hard-nosed politician with a military mindset that critics argue has been an obstacle to national reconciliation.
He is a graduate of the former Soviet Union's Frunze War College and received further military training in Italy. Yusuf also served as Somalia's military attache to Moscow between 1965 and 1968.
The following year, Barre led an overthrow of the elected civilian government and stayed in power until his own ouster in 1991.
Yusuf refused Barre's appeal for his help in the coup, a decision that resulted in his detention until 1975.
At that point, either through forgiveness or expedience, Barre released Yusuf and appointed him director of a government agency before giving him command of the southern front during a 1977-8 war with neighbouring Ethiopia.
In April 1978, he and other officers tried in vain to oust Barre. Dozens of people involved in the coup attempt were executed. Yusuf managed to flee to Kenya.
Later that year, he formed the first organised group to take up arms against Barre, the Somali Salvation Democratic Front, and remained its chairman for seven years.
Somalia's next in charge is Parliament Speaker Aden Mohammed Nur, who is also currently in Nairobi, as is newly appointed Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein.
Yusuf's health alert comes amid continued political turmoil in the western-backed transitional federal government, with four ministers resigning before they were even sworn in.
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