BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, Al Haj, born on May 15, 1949, is the youngest among four children. He started his elementary education at the age of seven and completed the six-year program in five years.

In 1960, he enrolled at the Cotabato Public High School in Cotabato City. He then enrolled at the Mindanao State University-Marawi as a university scholar for his college education, but transferred a year later to Notre Dame University in Cotabato City after passing the entrance examination and was granted a government scholarship by the then Commission on National Integration (CIN).

The series of massacres committed against the Bangsamoro at the time sparked rage and impelled him to join the clandestine Moro movement in 1968. He participated in the movement’s military training from 1970 where he eventually decided to quit his formal education during his fifth and final year as a Civil Engineering student.

He was appointed as a Zone Commander of the then (unified) Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) with an area of assignment covering fifteen municipalities after undergoing a military training abroad.

In 1974, he became the Military Chairman of the MNLF for the entire Kutawato Region (now comprised by the provinces of North Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, and Sarangani) where he rose as the Kutawato Region’s Chairman four years after (1978).

When the new MNLF leadership (Salamat faction) was created, he was designated as the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Coordinating Committee where he supervised all activities of the group in the homeland while Salamat Hashim was staying abroad.

When the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was created in 1982, he was appointed as the Vice Chairman for Military Affairs and the Chief of Staff of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF).

His diplomatic experience includes being the personal envoy of the late Salamat Hashim in diplomatic engagements and dealings with top-level government officials including the Muslim World League (MWL), and Organization of the Islamic Conference (now Organization of the Islamic Cooperation).

He was also the Chairman of the MILF Peace Panel negotiating team with the Government of the Philippines (GPH) from 2001-2003. He signed in behalf of MILF in major peace agreements such as the Tripoli Peace Agreement of 2001.

When Shiekh Salamat Hashim passed away in 2003, he succeeded as the Chairman of the MILF. As the Chairman of MILF, he witnessed the signing of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) in 2012, and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) in 2014—both leading to the creation of the newly-established Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) where he serves as the Interim Chief Minister.