Ali Abdullah Saleh (Arabic: About this sound علي عبدالله صالح (help·info), ʿAlī ʿAbdullāh Ṣāliḥ; 21 March 1947 – 4 December 2017) was a Yemeni politician who served as the first President of Yemen, from Yemeni unification on 22 May 1990 to his resignation on 25 February 2012, following the Yemeni Revolution. Previously, he had served as President of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) from July 1978 to 22 May 1990, after the assassination of President Ahmad al-Ghashmi. Often described as a dictator, he has been accused of plundering billions of dollars from the poorest Arab nation during his two decades in power.
