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| Somali Rebellion | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Prelude to theSomali Civil War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Italy[1] |  SNM USC[2] SSDF SPMSupported by:  Ethiopia[3][4] | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Siad BarreMohammed Said Hersi MorganMuhammad Ali Samatar | Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud (Siilaanyo)[6]Mohamed Farrah AididAbdullahi Yusuf Ahmed Bashir Bililiqo | ||||||
| ||
|---|---|---|
President of Somalia
Overthrow  | ||
TheSomali Rebellion encompassed a series of armed uprisings against PresidentSiad Barre’s government between 1978 and 1991, ultimately bringing down theSomali Democratic Republic and triggering the full-scaleSomali Civil War. It took shape in April 1978, when several army officersattempted a coup after theOgaden War and then founded theSomali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF). The SSDF and newly formedSomali National Movement (SNM) began mountingguerrilla operations from bases inEthiopia.
During the early 1980s the SSDF and SNM escalated their campaigns, at one point culminating in a jointEthiopian/SSDF invasion in 1982 aimed at toppling Barre, which evolved into a protracted border conflict that severely weakened the SSDF. The SNM pressed on with hit-and-run assaults against government outposts across northwest Somalia, while Barre deployed his elite Red Berets to brutally suppress any clan-based dissidence proliferating through the country.
Other opposition groups sprang up: theUnited Somali Congress (USC) in the central regions and theSomali Patriotic Movement (SPM) in the south. As state authority weakenedIslamist movements, such asAl-Itihaad al-Islamiya, grew in strength which prompted government crackdowns. However no Islamic groups took up arms until after the state collapsed.[7]
By the late 1980s Somalia’s ruling apparatus was unraveling. After a serious automobile accident involving Barre in 1986, both internal rivals and external rebel commanders were emboldened. The state became increasingly repressive and violent, culminating in thebombardment of Burao and Hargeisa during mid-1988. Central ministries ceased to function as civil servants went unpaid and foreign aid dried up;[8] clan loyalties supplanted national institutions. The July1989 riots and massacres in Mogadishu marked the first large-scale urban violence in the south. By late 1990, the country was on the brink of collapse, as theUSC routed theSomali National Army inMudug,Galgadud, andHiiraan.[9]
Following a major battle between the regime and rebels in Mogadishu, theSomali Democratic Republic collapsed in January 1991, marking the onset of the full-scaleSomali Civil War. The rebel opposition fronts failed to offer a unified or viable political alternative after the central government fell.[10]
The defeat of theSomali military at the hands of Cuban/Ethiopian forces during theOgaden War of 1977-78 brought to the surface opposition elements within the armed forces.[11] Another significant consequence of the war was the massive influx of refugees from theOgaden into Somalia, estimated at over a million.[12]
At the end of 1978 the first major outflow of refugees numbering in the hundreds of thousands headed for Somalia, and were bombed and strafed during the exodus by the Ethiopian military.[13] This placed immense strain on theSomali Democratic Republic's (SDR) frail economy, forcing the government to increasingly rely on foreign aid to function. Thousands ofpastoral Somalis were also driven from the region, bringing much of their livestock, which led to disastrous ecological impacts as Somalia's limitedgrazing land became overburdened.[12]
The first serious postwar challenge to the regime came during anattempted coup in April 1978. The officers were primarily from theMajeerteen clan, and many of the coup plotters fled toEthiopia after the Somali government had put down the insurrection.[11] During the Ogaden War, ColonelAbdullahi Yusuf had served as a commander in theSomali National Army. After the war he deserted the army,[14] and helped lead the failed 1978 coup attempt following which he had immediately fled to Ethiopia.[15] In response to the coup, harsh reprisals were carried out by the government on the Majeerteen clan.[16]
In Ethiopia,Abdullahi Yusuf setup base for a new rebel organization called theSomali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) which he led and soon after began fighting with Ethiopian forces against the Somali army.[17] The SSDF possessed little autonomy over Ethiopian security forces,[18] as it was 'created, organized, trained and financed by Ethiopia'.[19] With the formation of the SSDF in Ethiopia, the era of armed opposition against theBarre regime had begun.[16]
During October 1980, President Siad declared astate of emergency and reinstated theSupreme Revolutionary Council (SRC).[20]
With Ethiopian assistance,[16] the SSDF began to launchguerilla attacks across the border on Somali army bases and civilian targets.[21] The Ethiopians began using the SSDF to help hunt downWestern Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) fighters.[22][23] During major Ethiopian military operations in 1980 that aimed to crush the WSLF, the SSDF was used to attack WSLF camps within Somalia.[24]
In response to rising dissent, the Somali government violently suppressed opposition movements and clans perceived to be a threat with the military and elite security forces.[11] The government initiated a harsh policies with the aim of depriving the rebels of political and social support. Whenever the SSDF launched attacks, the regime retaliated by rounding up hundreds of Majerteen officers and purging the civil service.[16]
The Ethiopian army intended to us theSomali Salvation Democratic Front to overthrow Barre and install a friendly regime.[25] The guerrillas were trained by Ethiopian officers and during the 1982 invasion of Somalia, SSDF forces were directly integrated into much larger Ethiopian army units.[18] In late June 1982, 15,000 Ethiopian army troops and thousands of SSDF rebels invaded Somalia in theHiran andMudug region. Theoffensives initially aimed forGalkayo in the north-east, andBeledweyne in central Somalia. According toGérard Prunier, "The plan was to cut Somalia into two by driving the troops all the way to the ocean, but the plan backfired."[26]
In spite of losses taken four years earlier during 1978 from the Ethiopian-Cuban counter offensive during theOgaden War, the Somali army had regrouped and the invasion led to a large increase in volunteers joining the army. The Ethiopian/SSDF attack had played out to Barres advantage,[27] as his declining regime found a significant upsurge in support.[26] The Ethiopian and SSDF forces never reached their objectives ofGalkayo andBeledweyne, but were instead halted to a stalemate at border towns ofBalanbale andGaldogob.[26]
During 1982, the Barre regime successfully split the SSDF and most its members surrendered to the government following an amnesty and payment offer.[28] By 1983 the bulk of the SSDF had rejoined the regime.[29] Irritated by this development, the Ethiopian government put the head of the SSDFAbdullahi Yusuf in jail, where he remained until theFall of the Derg regime in 1991.[30] During SSDF internal fighting during 1983 and 1984, Ethiopian security forces entered their camps and arrested the rebels central committee members.[18] After the rebels had no longer become useful toMengistu, he had members of the organization killed, imprisoned or dispersed.[31] The SSDF did not recover as an organization until relations with Ethiopia normalized during the tenure ofMeles Zenawi.[14]
In April 1981, a group ofIsaaq businesspeople, students, former civil servants and former politicians who lived in the United Kingdom founded theSomali National Movement (SNM( in London.[32] Initially, the aim of the various groups that merged to create the SNM was not to create an armed liberation front, but rather these groups formed as a direct response to the harsh policies enacted by the Barre regime against the Isaaq people.[33]
By 1982 the SNM transferred their headquarters toDire Dawa inEthiopia,[34] as both Somalia and Ethiopia at the time offered safe havens of operation for resistance groups against each other. From there the SNM successfully launched aguerrilla war against the Barre regime through incursions andhit and run operations on army positions in the northern Isaaq territories before returning to Ethiopia.[33]
One of Barre's earliest forms of collective punishment targeting non-combatant clans was against the Majeerteen in 1979. Between May and June 1979, his presidential Guard, called the Red Beret, killed over 2000 Majeerteen clan members. The Umar Mahmud sub-lineage ofMajeerteen particularly became the victims of this violence.[35] Although this violence was in response to the Majeerteen-based SSDF, Barre on the other hand began to target the entire clan.[36] Each subsequent attack by the SSDF resulted in collective punishment against the wider Majeerteen. This included sieges and blockades against Majeerteen-inhabited areas, closure of schools, closure of health-facilities, and the destruction of subsistence facilities such as water reservoirs and cattle. Each action by the Barre government, strengthened Majeerteen resolve against his regime.[36]
According toRebecca Richards, a systematicstate violence that followed was linked to the Barre government's belief that SNM attacks were receiving assistance from the Ethiopian government. The harshreprisals, widespread bombing and burning of villages by Barre regime followed every time there was an attack by SNM believed to be hiding in Ethiopia.[37] The regime violence in the north and northwest was disproportionate, affected many communities, particularly Isaaq. The number of civilian deaths in this massacre is estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000[38] according to various sources, whilst local reports estimate the total civilian deaths to be upwards of 200,000 Isaaq civilians.[39] The government attack included the levelling and complete destruction of the second and third largest cities in Somalia,[40]Hargeisa (which was 90 per cent destroyed)[41] andBurao (70 per cent destroyed) respectively through a campaign of aerial bombardment, and had caused 400,000 Somalis[42] (primarily of the Isaaq clan) to flee their land and cross the border to Hartasheikh in Ethiopia as refugees, creating the world's largest refugee camp then (1988),[43] with another 400,000 being internally displaced.[42]
A policy letter written by Barre's son-in-law and viceroy in the north GeneralMohammed Said Hersi Morgan known as The Morgan Report[44] formed the basis of the Barre regime's retaliation against the Isaaq following a successful SNM attack on Hargeisa and Burao. The policy letter provided “implemented and recommended measures” for a “final solution” to Somalia's “Isaaq problem”.[45]
AUnited Nations investigation concluded that the Barre regime's killing of Isaaq civilians was a genocide, and that the crime of genocide was "conceived, planned and perpetrated by the Somali government against the Isaaq people".[46]
TheHawiye moved quickly to occupy the south portion of Somalia. The capital ofMogadishu is located in the territory of theAbgaal andMurusade subclans of Hawiye.[47] Since the independence era, the Hawiye tribe had occupied important administrative positions in the bureaucracy and in the top army command. However, in the late 1980s disaffection with the regime set in among the Hawiye, who felt increasingly marginalized by the Siad Barre regime. A number of Hawiye elites had joined the earlierSODAF,SSDF and theSNM movements before converging to form their own branch in the very late 80s, theUnited Somali Congress.[48]
Taisier M. Ali states that Barre assuaged the Majeerteen, and targeted other groups like theHawiye. According to Ali, "with funds and clan appeals, he [Barre] was able to entice the bulk of SSDF fighters to return from Ethiopia and participate in his genocidal wars against the Isaaq in the north and later against the Hawiye in the South, including Mogadisho".[49] According to Mohamed Haji Ingiriis, the vicious atrocities during the reign of Barre were not an isolated event nor unusual in Somalia's history. Barre also targeted the Hawiye.[50]
Faced with saboteurs by day and sniper fire by night, Siad Barre ordered remaining units of the badly demoralizedRed Berets to kill civilians on a large scale. By 1989 torture and killing became the order of the day in Mogadishu.
The Red Berets killed 450 Muslims demonstrating against the arrest of their spiritual leaders. More than 2,000 were seriously injured. The next day, forty-seven people, mainly from the Isaaq clan, were taken to Jasiira Beach west of the city and summarily executed. The July mass killings prompted a shift in United States policy as the United States began to distance itself from Siad Barre.
With the loss of United States support, the regime grew more desperate. An anti-Siad Barre demonstration on July 6, 1990, at a soccer match in the main stadium deteriorated into a riot, causing Siad Barre's bodyguard to panic and open fire on the demonstrators. At least sixty-five people were killed. A week later, while the city reeled from the impact of what came to be called the Stadia Corna Affair, Siad Barre sentenced to death 46 prominent members of the Manifesto Group, a body of 114 notables who had signed a petition in May calling for elections and improved human rights. During theshow trial that resulted in the death sentences, demonstrators surrounded the court and activity in the city came to a virtual halt. On July 13, a shaken Siad Barre dropped the charges against the accused. As the city celebrated victory, Siad Barre, conceding defeat for the first time in twenty years, retreated into his bunker at the military barracks near the airport.
The most shocking and gruesome revenge Siad Barre took against theHawiye, in particular the Hawadle sub-clan was the massacre he ordered in January 1991, just before he escaped Mogadishu for his clan strongholds in the deep south of Somalia. It is estimated that over 6,000 individuals died in the massacre ofBeledweyne, including women and children. This was a major turning point for the USC and further fueled the need to overthrow Siad Barre's regime - eventually proving successful as he was overthrown in late January. This incident inBeledweyne was the major cause for clan tensions as Siad Barre's militias mainly consisted ofMarehan,Ogaden andMajeerteen militias, led by General Morgan (Majeerteen) - who had caused many civilian deaths towards Isaaq's (SNM) by sending bombers to attack the northern cities, includingHargeisa (Somalia's second largest city).
In response to mutinies by Hawiye soldiers in October 1989, the Red Berets began attackingHawiye civilians. According to history professor Robert F. Baumann in his book 'My Clan Against The World: US And Coalition Forces In Somalia, 1992-1994', this shift of antagonism towards the Hawiye was a major military blunder since Barre's stronghold happened to be in Mogadishu, whose environs are majority Hawiye. These actions by Barre sealed his fate, as by 1990 the predominantly Hawiye USC (United Somali Congress) military group had beset the capital of Mogadishu.
The bulk of theDarood clan refugees who fled the Ethiopia-Somalia war were of theOgaden subclan.[51] Barre's hostility towards the Ogaden was in part derived from the huge influx of their clan members in the aftermath of war with Ethiopia, which resulted in a swelling of their numbers. This surge in their population resulted in what he viewed as an undue influence, with a change in the balance of power away from his ownMarehan subclan towards the Ogaden subclan. This resulted in Barre dismissing several military officers who were of Ogaden lineage. The friction escalated when Barre purged the minister of defense, Aden Gabiyo, from office, who was of the Ogaden subclan. In May 1989, this culminated into a revolt by Ogaden soldiers stationed inKismaayo, the formation of an anti-Barre military faction formed of Ogaden clansmen called SPM (Somali Patriotic Movement) and thedefection of Ogaden colonel Omar Jess.[36]
In early December 1990, theUnited Somali Congress held positions about 30 km northeast of the capital. Widespread violence was reported in Mogadishu, even before the main assault into the city, as a large portion of Mogadishu's population was armed during the period.[52] On 29 December 1990, some of Barre's armed men, organized into gangs for looting, seized large amounts of money from a Hawiye-owned store- armed men from many factions rushed to the scene, and soon, the forces of the United Somali Congress were battling with government forces in Mogadishu.[53][54] The USC claimed to hold "99% of Mogadishu" by 31 December, saying that fighting was ongoing around the palace and the airport,[55] and claimed to control the capital on January 1, but this was denied by government officials, who claimed that they were still controlling the city, while also claiming that fighting was restricted in size.[54]
Mohamed Hawadle Madar was quoted to have said that the rebels had been beaten back from an assault intoWardigley district, where the palace is located.[56] The rebels claimed to have captured the cities' radio station,Radio Mogadishu, by January 2, but a government broadcast from the station disproved this; by this time, the government was generally known to have controlled central Mogadishu.[57] The Somali rebels rejected attempts by Siad Barre to introduce a ceasefire, and only allowed foreign military evacuations under the watch of theRed Cross, which the Red Cross agreed to. A USC spokesman claimed that 10,000 reinforcements were arriving to Mogadishu to oust the Somali government.[58] On 22 January, a ceasefire was implemented, according to Somali government radio,[59] but days later, on 26 January, rebels overran the last government defenses at theMogadishu Airport and thePresidential Palace and ousted Siad Barre, ending his 21-year rule. It was rumored that he had fled in a tank. The rebels announced their victory on the formerly government-operated radio station.[60]
In 1991, theSomali National Movement declared the northwestern portion of the country independent. Although internationallyrecognised as anautonomous region of Somalia,Somaliland, as with neighboringPuntland, has remained relatively peaceful.[61]
in return for depriving the snm of its.
In 1982 SSDF was commanded by Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who was commander of the SNA (Somali National Army) during the Ethiopian-Somali War. After deserting the Somali Army, he began to fight together with Ethiopia against the Somali army.
The SSDF soon began to launch guerrilla raids on Somali army bases and civilian targets across the Ethiopian-Somali border.
The SSDF, which drew its support almost exclusively from the Mijerteen, the major clan in the northeast of Somalia, began hitting at strategic installations and military posts, as it aided the Ethiopian army in hunting down the WSLF.
the Ethiopian aim was to provide the DFSS with the wherewithal to overthrow President Siad Barre
Yet Siyaad surprised friends and foes alike by turning both events to advantage. His army vigorously repulsed the invaders...
