Background
Bourhan was born in 1934 in the coastal city of Tadjoura, situated in eastern present-day Djibouti.
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Ali Bourhan
Edit Profilepresident Djiboutian politician
Career
He hailed from a prominent local Afar family, the Abourbakers. As a young man in the 1950s, Bourhan began his professional career as a teacher. He also ran the town"s Afar and Somali youth club
Bourhan entered politics under the aegis of Ibrahim Sultan, the then Sultan of Tadjoura.
Through the latter, he was introduced to Mahmoud Harbi, the Vice President of the Government Council of French Somaliland and a former comrade of the Sultan in the French army during the World World War II campaign. Bourhan would subsequently serve in the territory"s representative council as a Harbist politician, strongly supporting Harbi"s independence-oriented platform.
He died in a plane crash two years later under mysterious circumstances. He would hold that position until 1966.
In July of the following year, he was elected President of the Government Council of the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas.
Bourhan served in that capacity until July 29, 1976, the eve of Djibouti"s independence. He was succeeded in office by Abdallah Mohamed Kamil.
Politics
In 1958, Harbi disappeared from the local political scene, having been exiled to Cairo by the French authorities. In 1960, with the fall of the ruling Dini administration, Bourhan assumed the seat of Vice President of the Government Council of French Somaliland, representing the University party.
