40 Facts About Siad Barre

Mohammed Siad Barre was a Somali military officer, politician and revolutionary who served as the third president of Somalia from 21 October 1969 to 26 January 1991.

Siad Barre's popularity was highest during the seven months between September 1977 and March 1978 when Siad Barre captured virtually the entirety of the Somali region.

In 1991, Siad Barre's government collapsed as the Somali Rebellion successfully ejected him from power, leading to the Somali Civil War and a massive power vacuum in its wake.

Siad Barre was forced into exile in Nigeria, where he died in 1995 on the way to the hospital after suffering a heart attack.

Mohamed Siad Barre was born at a time when birth records were unknown in Somalia.

Siad Barre's unofficial birthplace is said to be in Las Ga'al, which is a district of the El-Gab region, presently known as Shilavo in the Ogaden Region of Ethiopia.

Siad Barre's official birthplace is recorded to be the city of Garbahare, which is a part of the provincial capital of the Gedo region of Somalia.

Siad Barre came from a humble background, deeply rooted in the Marehan sub-clan of the Darod.

Siad Barre had seen his father killed by Isaqs and the impression never left him.

Siad Barre's clan straddled the British and Italian segments of Somalia, forming a minority in each.

Siad Barre was worried that the country could split in two and in either case, his clan, as a minority, would be shut out of power.

Siad Barre became an inspector of police and later went to Italy to attend a military academy.

Siad Barre was not a normal person; he was a psychopath whose mercurial spirit vacillated between raving hatred in one moment and words of praise and reconciliation the next moment.

Siad Barre was reportedly forever after deeply marked by the murder of his father.

Siad Barre was given the childhood nickname Barre, referring to extrovertedness.

In 1946, Siad Barre supported the Somali Conference, a political group of parties and clan associations that were hostile to the Somali Youth League and were supported by the local Italian settlers.

Siad Barre acquired the usual grounding in Islam at a qur'anic school there.

Between 1950 and 1960, Mohammed Siad Barre heavily pursued studies in languages, ultimately mastering Italian, English and Swahili.

Siad Barre eventually became vice-commander of the Somali Army when the country gained its independence in 1960 as the Somali Republic.

Siad Barre assumed the position of president of Somalia, styled the "Victorious Leader", and fostered the growth of a personality cult with portraits of him in the company of Marx and Lenin lining the streets on public occasions.

Siad Barre advocated a form of scientific socialism based on the Qur'an and Marxism-Leninism, with heavy influences of Somali nationalism.

Siad Barre began a program of nationalising industry and land, and the new regime's foreign policy placed an emphasis on Somalia's traditional and religious links with the Arab world, eventually joining the Arab League in 1974.

That same year, Siad Barre served as chairman of the Organization of African Unity, the predecessor of the African Union.

In July 1976, Siad Barre's SRC disbanded itself and established in its place the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, a one-party government based on scientific socialism and Islamic tenets.

Siad Barre advocated the concept of a Greater Somalia, which refers to those regions in the Horn of Africa in which ethnic Somalis reside and have historically represented the predominant population, encompassing Somalia, Djibouti, the Ogaden in Ethiopia, and Kenya's former North Eastern Province.

In July 1977, the Ogaden War broke out after the Siad Barre's government sought to incorporate the various Somali-inhabited territories of the region into a Greater Somalia, beginning with the Ogaden.

West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Siad Barre negotiated a deal to allow a GSG 9 anti-terrorist unit into Mogadishu to free the hostages.

The Ethiopian-Somali agreement was signed by 1988 and Siad Barre disbanded his clandestine anti-Ethiopian organisation the Western Somali Liberation Front.

In return, Siad Barre hoped that Mengistu would disarm Somali National Movement rebels active on the Ethiopian side of the border; however did this not materialise since the SNM relocated to Northern Somalia in response to this agreement.

The Soviet Union, which at the time maintained strategic relations with the Siad Barre government, airlifted some 90,000 people from the devastated regions of Hobyo and Aynaba.

In May 1986, President Siad Barre suffered serious injuries in a life-threatening automobile collision near Mogadishu, when the car that was transporting him smashed into the back of a bus during a heavy rainstorm.

Siad Barre was treated in a hospital in Saudi Arabia for head injuries, broken ribs and shock over a period of a month.

In January 1979 Siad Barre ordered the execution of ten sheiks who were arrested for their religious beliefs.

The religious community had begun to exhibit opposition to Siad Barre's furthered attempt to secularize Somalia.

Siad Barre singled out the Isaaq clan for a "neo-fascist" type punishment resulting in a "semi-colonial" type subjugation which fuelled collective self assertion to supporters of the Somali National Movement.

Siad Barre responded by ordering punitive measures against those he perceived as locally supporting the guerrillas, especially in the northern regions.

Siad Barre escaped from his palace towards the Kenyan border in a tank.

Siad Barre twice attempted to retake Mogadishu, but in May 1991 was overwhelmed by General Mohamed Farrah Aidid's army and forced into exile.

Siad Barre initially moved to Nairobi, Kenya, but opposition groups there protested his arrival and the Kenyan government's support for him.

Siad Barre died of a heart attack on 2 January 1995, in Lagos.