Dictator  Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed resigned, ending a four-year tenure in which he failed to bring peace to the Horn of Africa nation that has been wracked by conflict for the past 17 years.

Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nor, the speaker of parliament, will assume the presidency under the country’s transitional federal charter, Yusuf told lawmakers in the nation’s parliament in Baidoa, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the capital, Mogadishu. The address was broadcast on Capital Voice, a closely held broadcaster.

“I have handed over my resignation letter to the speaker of parliament,” Yusuf said. “I urge all of you to unite.”

Yusuf, 74, was appointed head of a United Nations-backed transitional federal government on Oct. 14, 2004, with the aim of forming the country’s first national government since 1991, when former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was ousted. Last year U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops helped Yusuf’s government remove an Islamist coalition that briefly ruled Mogadishu. Since then, a widening insurgency by Islamists has thwarted Yusuf’s efforts to extend the government’s control beyond the capital.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 29, 2008 02:57 EST