Somali National Front Dhaqdhaqaaqa Jabhada Soomaliyeed | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | SNF |
Leader | Omar Haji Mohamed Mohammed Hashi Gani Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan |
Founded | March 1991 |
Dissolved | 2001 |
Merged into | Transitional National Government |
Headquarters | Nairobi, Kenya (Political HQ) and Luuq, Somalia (Military HQ) |
Ideology | Pro-Siad Barre politics Somali nationalism National Reconciliation Darod interests |
Religion | Sunni Islam |
The Somali National Front (SNF) (Somali: Dhaqdhaqaaqa Jabhada Soomaliyeed) was a politico-military organization that operated in southern Somalia during the Somali Civil War and represented one of the major factions involved in the conflict.
After its creation following the collapse of President Siyaad Barre's government in 1991, the SNF was largely made up of remnants of the Somali National Army, along with splinter groups from the Somali Democratic Movement (SDM) and supporters of Barre.
The SNF would eventually merge into the internationally recognized Transitional National Government of Somalia in 2001.
After the fall of President Mohamed Siad Barre's government in 1991, many members of his Marehan sub-clan faced collective punishment and war crimes at the hands of anti-Barre rebel groups, particularly the United Somali Congress (USC). As a result, large numbers of the clan were forced to flee central Somalia, including the capital city of Mogadishu, and seek refuge in Gedo region bordering Kenya. [1]
Soon after the exodus, the Somali National Front (SNF) was formed. Initially it was made up of loyalists to former Siad Barre and remnants of the Somali National Army. The intent behind its formation was to incorporate the major Darod clans into the faction, recapture Mogadishu and reinstate Barre's regime. [2] [3] The SNF appealed to clan unity as a reason to join the organizations struggle, and this appeal was further strengthened by the indiscriminate killings of Somalis belonging Darod sub-clans that were perceived as being associated with the regime of the former president. These killings led to a sense of solidarity among members of the Darod clan and consequently resulted in many rallying under the banner of the SNF. [4]
The organization was primarily responsible for the severity of the 1992 famine. After President Siad Barre had been ejected from Mogadishu by Aidids forces in January 1991, the faction withdrew to the south of the city into Somalia's fertile breadbasket. Lacking supplies of their own, Barres forces ravaged the grain stores of inter-riverine agricultural belt around the Jubba and Shebelle rivers. This dire food supply situation was further exacerbated by fighting between Barre and rebels, the most powerful of which were led by General Mohamed Farah Aidid, who were attempting push Barre out of Somalia entirely. [5]
In its first years the organization possessed approximately 9000 troops, seven T54/T55 tanks and eighteen 122 mm artillery pieces. [6] [7]
In March to April 1991, heavy fighting broke out between the United Somali Congress (USC) and SNF forces. The SNF lost control of Kismayo, one of Somalia's largest and most strategic cities, and was consequently forced to withdraw to the city of Bardera and parts of the Gedo region. However, in November 1991 to March 1992, the SNF advanced back into the territory it had lost months earlier, taking advantage of infighting among its opponents. This action prompted the creation of the opposing Somali Liberation Army (SLA), a military coalition composed of numerous rebel groups led by General Mohamed Farah Aidid. The SLA would later become the precursor to the Somali National Alliance (SNA), another significant faction in the Somali Civil War that the SNF would come into direct conflict with. [8] During this period the SNF suffered serious internal divisions. Two factions from within were in contention, one led by President Siad Barre and the other by Gen. Muhammad Hashi Gani. Tensions got to the point where both men openly denounced each other in front of television crews in March 1992. [9]
In April 1992 the SNF was decisively defeated by Aidids SLA forces, and former President Siad Barre fled from Somalia via the Kenyan border on 27 April. [9] Later in the year, following the recent formation of the SNA led by Aidid, his prime rival, Ali Mahdi Muhammad of the Somali Salvation Alliance (SSA) began supporting the SNF in an attempt to create his own pan-clan alliance. [10] [11]
In early 1993, the SNF began gaining a foothold in Somalia again. Around the same period fighting broke out in the Galkayo region between the Aidid's SNA and the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) led by Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed. In response, SNF forces under the command of Morgan entered the Galguduud region to support the SSDF. At around the same time fighting broke out between Morgan's forces at the strategic port city of Kismayo and the American and Belgian UN forces deployed there. [12]
Following a series of clashes with the Somali Democratic Movement (SDM) in early 1994, a conference was organized by communities in the Gedo and Bay regions. The conference was attended by representatives of the SNF and the SDM, as well as a large number of community elders, clan leaders, and intellectuals from both regions. The purpose of the conference was to reconcile the SNF and the SDM and to unite the peoples of the two communities, and it was largely successful in achieving these goals. [13]
For most of the civil war, the SNF governed and conducted operations in the Gedo region of southern Somalia. [14] In an effort to restore order in the area, the SNF supported the creation of an Islamic Sharia court to resolve disputes and a police force to maintain order. As a result, a relatively effective governing administration was established in the region. [1] The SNF's political leadership, led by former Defense Minister General Omar Haji Masallah, was based in Nairobi, Kenya, while the military wing was led by General Mohammed Hashi Ghani based in the city of Luuq, Gedo. [3] [15] The organization would be consistently represented at all major national reconciliation and peace conferences over the 1990s. [16]
Although the SNF was primarily made up of members of the Marehan sub-clan of the Darod, it reportedly had significant support in the region, despite the presence of non-Darod and non-Somali minority groups in the Juba and Dawa river basins. [14] Initially, the SNF had tried to use Siad Barre's name and legacy to rally for support, but found that this was generally counterproductive to their efforts among Somalis outside the Marehan clan. [3]
In 1991, a faction of the Somali Democratic Movement (SDM) broke away and merged with the SNF. [10] Later, under General Omar Haji Masallah, the SNF achieved some of its major political goals by uniting the Marehan with other Darod clans led by General Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan. [17]
Like Aidids SNA and Ali Mahdi's SSA, the SNF also began opposing the rising strength of the Islamic courts appearing in southern Somalia. A sharia court established in Luuq District of Gedo region by Sheikh Mohamed A. Nuur in 1992 (with the blessing and support of the SNF) [1] reportedly had more success than the courts appearing in Mogadishu at addressing lawlessness. Consequently Luuq district was considered to be one of the safest places in Somalia. Concerned with the sharia courts rising popularity and authority, the SNF and the Ethiopian military collaborated to destroy the Gedo Islamic Court, resulting in an increase of inter-clan warfare in the region. [18]
On 10 August 1996 heavy fighting erupted near Kenya's border city of Mandera during clashes between Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (AIAI) and the SNF, backed by Ethiopian Air Force helicopter gunships. While pursuing AIAI, SNF and Ethiopian forces had allegedly crossed the border and Mandera was inadvertently bombed three times during the battle resulting in the death of a Kenyan soldier. This would lead to the imposition of a curfew on the North Frontier District and the Kenya Defence Force being put on full alert. [19] [20]
Following a two month long conference in July 1998, Mohammed Siad Hersi Morgan (head of the SNF at the time) announced in September that he planned to set up an autonomous state of Jubaland, with the port of Kismayo as its capital. The objective of the movement was not to break away from Somalia, but rather to search for a "bottom up" solution to the country's issues through a new approach. [17] [21]
In the late 90s the SNF had fractured into pro and anti-Ethiopian factions. [22] In 1999, Ethiopia made another incursion into Somalia in support of a breakaway faction within the SNF in conflict with the original SNF led by General Omar Haji, which Ethiopia had previously supported against AIAI and the Islamic courts. [14] [18]
That same year, the SNF would entirely lose control of Gedo region when a military coalition united under the banner of the Allied Somali Force (later named the Jubba Valley Alliance) launched an offensive in the area. [1]
In June 2001, SNF would merge into the Transitional National Government of Somalia (TNG). [23]
The Somali Armed Forces are the military forces of the Federal Republic of Somalia. Headed by the president as commander-in-chief, they are constitutionally mandated to ensure the nation's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.
Mohamed Farrah Hassan Garad, known as General Aidid or Aideed was a Somali general and diplomat.
Gedo is an administrative region (gobol) in Jubaland, southern Somalia. Its regional capital is Garbahaarreey. It was created in 1974 and is bordered by the Ogaden in Ethiopia, the North Eastern Province in Kenya, and the Somali regions of Bakool, Bay, Jubbada Dhexe, and Jubbada Hoose further down east. The southern parts of Gedo, west of the Jubba River, used to be part of the old British Trans-Juba region during half of the seventy years of colonial era in Africa from 1890 to 1960. The British and Italians fought twice over this area. The first democratically elected governor of the administrative region was Hussein Farey, who entered office in 2008.
Mohammed Siad Barre was a Somali military officer, politician and revolutionary who served as the head of state of Somalia from 21 October 1969 to 26 January 1991.
Kismayo is a port city in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia. It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region.
Hussein Mohamed Farrah Aidid is the son of General Mohamed Farrah Aidid. His father was leader of the Somali National Alliance (SNA), the organization that fought US forces in Mogadishu, through his death on August 2, 1996, after being shot in a tribal battle. Farrah succeeded his father as leader of the SNA, and two days after his father's death, the SNA declared Farrah as the new President, although he too was not internationally recognized as such. Farrah relinquished his claim as president in December 1997, by signing the Cairo Declaration, a significant step toward peace in Somalia.
Barre Adan Shire, also known as Barre Hiiraale, Barre "Hirale" Aden Shire, or Abdikadir Adan Shire, is a former Minister of Defense of the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG). He was previously the TFG Minister for National Reconstruction and Resettlement. Hiiraale was also the chairman of the now defunct Juba Valley Alliance, which controlled Southern and Southwestern Somalia, including the nation's third-largest city, the strategic port town of Kismayo. During his time in office, Hiiraale presided over the country's largest autonomous area, as well as commanding an extensive militia.
The United Somali Congress (USC) was one of the major rebel organizations in Somalia. Formed in 1989, it played a leading role in the ouster of the government of Siad Barre in 1991, and became a target of the Unified Task Force campaign in 1993. Following infighting, the USC later splintered into smaller groups. By 2000, with the establishment of a Transitional National Government (TNG), a process of disarmament was put in motion and some moderate ex-USC leaders were incorporated into the new interim administration.
The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed Forces began engaging in combat against various armed rebel groups, including the Somali Salvation Democratic Front in the northeast, the Somali National Movement in the northwest, and the United Somali Congress in the south. The clan-based armed opposition groups overthrew the Barre government in 1991.
The Marehan is a Somali clan, which is part of one of the largest Somali clan families, the Darod. The clan is one of the largest constituent sub-clans of the Darod. The majority of the Marehan live in the Jubaland in southern Somalia, as well as the Galguduud and Mudug regions in central Somalia, the Somali region of Ethiopia and the North Eastern Province of Kenya.
The Rahanweyn, also known as the Digil and Mirifle are a major Somali clan. It is one of the major Somali clans in the Horn of Africa, with a large territory and densely populated fertile valleys of the Jubba and Shebelle rivers and the area between are mainly inhabited by settlers from the Digil and Mirifle lineages.
Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya was an Islamist militant group in Somalia. Formed in the 1980's through a merger of smaller Islamist groups, the organization was the most powerful Islamic movement in Somalia during the late 80s and early 90s. The organization had the most significant multi clan following of all Islamist factions in the country and professed the aim of creating a Somali Islamic state.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys (English: Hassan Dahir Aweys (Somali: Xasan Daahir Aweys, is a Somali political figure from the Habargidir/Ayr subclan within the Hawiye clan. During the regime of Siad Barre, Aweys was a colonel in the Somali National Army during the 1977 Ogaden War against Ethiopia. He was decorated for bravery for his part in 1977 the war.
The Somali Patriotic Movement was a major politico-military faction during the early years of the Somali Civil War. It was founded and commanded by Colonel Shukri Weyrah Kaariye and Colonel Bashir Bililiqo. After Col. Bililiqo's death in 1992, he was succeeded by Major general Aden Abdullahi Nur and his deputy Major general Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan,who were based in what is presently Jubaland region.
Following the civil war and the ensuing societal chaos, some factions managed to exert a degree of authority over certain regions of Somalia where they maintained broad, clan-based support. This allowed these factions to establish working administrations and eventually coherent states, and restored order to their regions. This occurred first in Puntland, Southwestern Somalia, Galmudug, Jubaland and finally Banadir.
The Somali National Alliance was a major politico-military faction formed on 16 June 1992 by four different rebel groups that had been in opposition to the regime of former Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre. The SNA was the first major inter-clan and inter-factional political alliance and was considered to be among the most powerful factions of the Somali Civil War. The alliance would most notably face off against the second phase of the United Nations Operation in Somalia in the latter half of 1993.
Major General Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan, also known as General Morgan or Colonel Morgan, is a Somali military and faction leader. He was the son-in-law of Siad Barre and Minister of Defence of Somalia. He hails from the Majeerteen Darood clan.
Over the course of the Somali Civil War, there have been many revolutionary movements and militia groups run by competing rebel leaders which have held de facto control over vast areas within Somalia.
Aden Abdullahi Nur "Gabyow". Was a very senior Somali Military Commander, Faction Leader, Politician, a leading member and one of the most powerful men in the Somali Democratic Republic.
Jubaland, the Juba Valley or Azania, is a Federal Member State in southern Somalia. Its eastern border lies 40–60 km (25–35 mi) east of the Jubba River, stretching from Gedo to the Indian Ocean, while its western side flanks the North Eastern Province in Kenya, which was carved out of Jubaland during the colonial period.
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