Early Life
Osman Hassan Ali Atto is a member of the Somali Hawiye clan, sub-clan Habar Gedir (sub-clan Sa'ad and the hiloowle and was born in 1945. Atto is his nickname meaning "skinny". Osman Ali Atto is a former main financier of the Aidid faction, a multi-millionaire businessman, alleged arms dealer and drug trafficker. Atto owns the biggest landed property in Somalia, including many of the buildings in Mogadishu which are rented to relief agencies and the media. Before the Civil War, Atto was a chauffeur to various representatives for the US oil company Conoco. Osman Ali Atto has 22 children. Atto derives significant profits from a tanker-trucking company which operates from a strategically situated truck yard at Eldoret, in north-western Kenya. From there, Atto ships gasoline to Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. This business is allegedly operated by his relatives. In addition to his Somali passport, Atto uses passports from Kenya, the United States and possibly Italy.
Read more about this topic: Osman Ali Atto
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“He had long before indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our fellow-subjects in America. For, as early as 1769,... he had said of them, “Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of hanging.””
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Silent waters rocking on the morning of our birth,
like an empty cradle waiting to be filled.
And from the heart of God the Spirit moved upon the earth,
like a mother breathing life into her child.”
—Gordon Light (20th century)