Somali Centenarian Man Weds 17-Year-Old Young Woman

October 29, 2009

MOGADISHU (AFP) –

A man claiming to be 112 married a 17-year-old at a ceremony in central Somalia, his sixth wedding in total but his first in three quarters of a century, he said Thursday.

"My wife is ten times younger than me but we love each other so much and I believe that I can give her the kind of love that not any young man can offer," Ahmed Mohamed Dhore told AFP.

"Married life is about love and passion rather than age and beauty," said the centenarian, whose wedding ceremony in the town of Guriel was attended by hundreds on Wednesday.

"The first time I got married was so long ago I cannot remember and the last time must have been about 75 years ago, I was still a young man," he said.

Dhore would have already been an adult when the nationalist leader "Mad Mullah," Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, who fought the British empire and created the Dervish state died in 1920.

He said the secret to a longevity spanning three different centuries was "healthy food when he was young".

"I'm 112 and can live the life of a youngster... The idea to get married again came from my children and grand-children," he said, explaining that his only other surviving wife was 90 and ailing.

According to statistics by international aid and development agencies, the average life expectancy of a Somali male is 47.

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