Siad Barre

Biography

Mohamed Siad Barre was born around 1919 to pastoral parents of the Darod clan; his unofficial birthplace lies in the Ogaden, in today's Ethiopia, while his official one is Garbahaarreey in Somalia. He joined the police under the British military administration in 1941 and by 1950 had reached the highest rank open to a Somali, chief police inspector. After studying at a military academy in Italy in the 1950s he became police chief in Mogadishu, and at independence in 1960 he was made deputy commander of the new Somali National Army, becoming its commander in 1965.

After President Abdirashid Shermarke was assassinated in October 1969, the army seized power on 21 October and Barre became head of the Supreme Revolutionary Council. His regime declared Somalia a socialist state, nationalised banks and industry, introduced a new writing system for Somali, made it the language of instruction in 1972 and ran mass literacy campaigns. In 1976 the council gave way to the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, with Barre as general secretary, and he chaired the Organisation of African Unity in 1974-75.

In 1977 he launched the Ogaden War against Ethiopia in pursuit of a Greater Somalia. Defeat in 1978 was followed by a failed coup attempt, the break with the Soviet Union and a turn toward the United States. Armed opposition, the Somali Rebellion, grew through the 1980s, and in 1986 he was badly injured in a car crash near Mogadishu.

Rebels drove him from Mogadishu in January 1991. After failed attempts to retake the capital he went into exile, first in Nairobi and then in Lagos, where he died of a heart attack in January 1995.