Mohamed Farrah Aidid

Aidid was born in 1934 in Mudug, Italian Somaliland.[5] He is from the Reer Jalaf, Habar Gidir subclan of Hawiye. He was educated in Rome and Moscow and served in the Italian colonial police force in the 1950s. He later joined the Somali National Army.[6]

Aideed was a highly qualified officer and quirky person who was selected to study advanced post graduate military science at the Frunze Military Academy (Военная академия им. М. В. Фрунзе) in the Soviet Union, an elite institution reserved for the most qualified officers of the Warsaw Pact armies and their allies.[7]

In 1969, a few days after the assassination of Somalia's second president Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, a military junta led by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre staged a bloodless coup d'état. Aidid at the time was serving as Army Commander of the 26th Division based in Hargeisa. He was also the Head of Operations for the Central Regions and Northern Regions of Somalia. However he was relieved of his duties and soon after was recalled to Mogadishu to lead the troops guarding the burial of the deceased President. He quickly fell out of favour with the new regime's leaders and was subsequently detained along with Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. Aidid was eventually released from prison six years afterwards to take part in the 1977–78 war against Ethiopia over the disputed Ogaden region.[8]

He later served as an advisor to President Barre and as Somalia's ambassador to India, before being appointed intelligence chief.[9][10]

After a fallout from the unsuccessful Ogaden campaign of the late 1970s, the Barre administration began arresting government and military officials under suspicion of participation in the abortive 1978 coup d'état.[11][12] Most of the people who had allegedly helped plot the putsch were summarily executed.[13] However, several officials managed to escape abroad and started to form the first of various dissident groups dedicated to ousting Barre's regime by force.[14]

By the late 1980s, Barre's regime had become increasingly unpopular. The State took an increasingly hard line, and insurgencies, encouraged by Ethiopia's communist Derg administration, sprang up across the country. This eventually led to the outbreak of the civil war, the gradual breakup of the Somali Armed Forces, and the toppling of Barre's government on 26 January 1991. Many of the opposition groups subsequently began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed the ouster of Barre's regime. Armed factions led by United Somali Congress (USC) commanders General Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohamed, in particular, clashed as each sought to exert power over the capital.[15][12]

United Nations Security Council Resolution 733 and UN Security Council Resolution 746 led to the creation of the UNOSOM I after the dissolution of the central government. United Nations Security Council Resolution 794 was unanimously passed on 3 December 1992, which approved a coalition led by the United States. Forming the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the alliance was given the task of assuring security until humanitarian efforts were transferred to the UN. Landing in 1993, the UN peacekeeping coalition started the two-year United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II) primarily in the south.[16]

Aidid subsequently declared himself President of Somalia in June 1995.[17] However, his declaration received no international recognition, as his rival Ali Mahdi Muhammad had already been elected interim president at a conference in 1991 in Djibouti and recognized as such by the international community.[18]

On 24 July 1996, Aidid and his men clashed with the forces of former allies Ali Mahdi Muhammad and Osman Ali Atto. Atto was a former supporter and financier of Aidid, and of the same subclan. Atto is alleged to have masterminded the defeat of Aidid.[19] Aidid suffered a gunshot wound in the ensuing battle. He later died from a heart attack on 1 August, either during or after surgery to treat his injuries.[20]

Other officers allegedly targeted by Atto include General Talan. In its 2000 Country Report for Somalia, the U.S. Department of State asserted that the killing of Yusuf Tallan, a former general under the Barre regime, was connected to Osman Ali Atto "because of Atto's business deals in the north and the possibility of a deal between Somaliland President Egal and Atto in order to destabilize the south."[21]

During the events leading up to the civil war, Aidid's wife Khadiga Gurhan sought asylum in Canada in 1989, taking their four children with her. Local media shortly afterwards alleged that she had returned to Somalia for a five-month stay while still receiving welfare payments. Gurhan admitted in an interview to collecting welfare and having briefly traveled to Somalia in late 1991. However, it was later brought to light that she had been granted landed immigrant status in June 1991, thereby making her a legal resident of Canada. Additionally, Aidid's rival President Barre had been overthrown in January of that year. This altogether ensured that Gurhan's five-month trip would not have undermined her initial 1989 claim of refugee status. An official probe by Canadian immigration officials into the allegations also concluded that she had obtained her landing papers through normal legal processes.[22]

Hussein Mohamed Farrah, son of General Aidid, emigrated to the United States when he was 17 years old. Staying 16 years in the country, he eventually became a naturalized citizen and later a United States Marine who served in Somalia. Two days after his father's death, the Somali National Alliance declared Farrah as the new president, although he too was not internationally recognized as such.[23]

• Binney, Michael. Joint Close Air Support in the Low Intensity Conflict (thesis). Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School. June 2003.
• Bowden, Mark. Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War. Berkeley, California: Atlantic Monthly Press. March 1999.
• "Somali faction leader Aidid dies". CNN. 2 August 1996. Archived from the original on 10 March 2006.
• Lutz, David. Hannover Institute of Philosophical Research. The Ethics of American Military Policy in Africa (research paper). Front Royal, Virginia: Joint Services Conference on Professional Ethics. 2000.
• McKinley, James. 'How a U.S. Marine Became a Warlord in Somalia'. New York: The New York Times. 16 August 1996.