Moussa Ahmed Idriss

Moussa Ahmed Idriss was born in Djibouti City circa 1933. Entering politics in the late 1950s, Idriss emerged as a fiery orator and leader of the Parti du Mouvement Populaire (PMP), which mobilized workers and youth against French colonial hegemony.

Elected to the French National Assembly in Paris in 1962, Idriss courageously utilized the parliamentary rostrum to demand sovereign independence for French Somaliland. Remaining an active civic leader for half a century, he founded the Opposition Djiboutienne Unifiée (ODU) and ran for president in the historic 1999 elections.