RIYADH — Former Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi has died at the age of 81 in Riyadh. According to a family source, Hadi passed away this morning at a hospital in Riyadh following a sudden health crisis in recent days.
Hadi served as the internationally recognized president of Yemen for a decade before transferring his presidential powers in 2022 to the eight-member Presidential Leadership Council, chaired by Rashad Al-Alimi.
He served as the second president of Yemen from 2012 until his resignation in 2022. Prior to that, he was Yemen’s vice president from 1994 to 2012 under President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Between 4 June and 23 September 2011, Hadi served as acting president while Saleh underwent medical treatment in Saudi Arabia after an attack on the presidential palace in 2011.
Born on 1 September 1945 in the village of Dhakin in Yemen’s southern Abyan governorate, Hadi began his military career after graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Britain in 1966. He later earned a Master of Military Science degree from the Nasser Military Academy in Egypt in 1970, followed by a Master of Military Leadership degree from the Frunze Military Academy in the former Soviet Union.
Throughout his career, Hadi held several senior military and political positions, most notably serving for many years as vice president before assuming the presidency. His tenure became closely associated with one of the most turbulent periods in modern Yemeni history, marked by war, political fragmentation, and deep security divisions.
Hadi steadily rose through the military and political ranks, previously serving as field marshal of the Yemeni Armed Forces before becoming vice president in October 1994. He assumed the presidency in February 2012 as part of a Gulf-backed transition plan following the resignation of longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh amid nationwide protests. After taking office, he initiated what was widely described as the most extensive restructuring of Yemen’s military and security institutions, seeking to unify rival armed factions and reorganize army and security forces.
Hadi remained a pivotal figure in contemporary Yemeni history, witnessing and shaping many of the country’s major political and military transformations, culminating in his delegation of full authority to the Presidential Leadership Council in April 2022.
Source: Saudi Gazette