14 Facts About Ali Soilih

Ali Soilih M'Tsashiwa was a Comorian socialist revolutionary and political figure who served as the 7th and 8th and 9th and President of the Comoros from 3 January 1976 to 13 May 1978.

Ali Soilih spent much of his early life there, and was educated in Madagascar and France.

In 1967, Ali Soilih was elected to the National Assembly.

In 1970, Ali Soilih entered politics as a supporter of Said Ibrahim, leader of the Democratic Assembly of the Comoran People, Rassemblement democratique du Peuple Comorien.

Ali Soilih soon developed an ideology of hostility towards France as the former colonial power.

Ali Soilih's ideas were socialist, and he renounced his Islamic faith and became an atheist.

Ali Soilih officially became President of the revolutionary council in January 1976.

Ali Soilih acquired extensive powers under the terms of a new constitution and implemented socialist economic policies.

Ali Soilih embarked on a revolutionary program that was mainly directed against the country's traditional Muslim society.

Ali Soilih's vision, based on a mixture of Maoism and Islamic philosophies, was to develop the Comoros as an economically self-sufficient and ideologically progressive modern 20th-century state.

On May 13,1978, Ali Soilih was finally overthrown by a force of 50 mercenaries, the majority of them former French paratroopers hired by exiled former leader Ahmed Abdallah and led by French Colonel Bob Denard.

Abdallah became president, Ali Soilih's policies were reversed, and the name of the country was changed to "Islamic Federal Republic of the Comoros".

Ali Soilih served as president of the Comoros until 1996.

The effects of the social policies of Ali Soilih are still apparent throughout the Comoros, particularly on Anjouan.