Biography
Aidid was born in the Habr Gidr clan of the Mudug region of Somalia. He was educated in Rome and Moscow and served in the Italian colonial police force in the 1950s. Later he rose in the military of Mohamed Siad Barre to the rank of general and served in the 1977-78 Ogaden War with Ethiopia. Aidid also served in Barre's cabinet and as Somali ambassador to India before finally being appointed intelligence chief.
Somali Civil War
Barre suspected Aidid of planning a coup d'état and had him imprisoned for six years as means of pre-emption. In 1991, Aidid's clan did indeed manage to overthrow Barre, and the former, as leader of the United Somali Congress, emerged as a major force in the ensuing civil war.
Opposition to UN intervention
As the civil war grew, with the breakdown of centralized government and no single successor to Barre's regime emerging, the term "warlord" came into use in Somalia. The tribalism of clan-based rebel organizations, and a complex web of regional and local domination elevated warlords to be de facto rulers of the country. Aidid was considered chief amongst them. However, he was defeated by a rival, which led to the opportunity for UN peace keepers to be brought in.
General Aidid hindered international U.N. peacekeeping forces in 1992. As a result, the US put a $25,000 bounty on his head and attempted to arrest and try him for war crimes. On October 3, 1993 a force of United States Army Rangers and Delta Force operators set out to capture several officials of Aidid's militia in an area of the Somali capital city of Mogadishu, controlled by him. Although technically successful, with the capture of several "tier-one personalities", the operation did not completely go as planned, between 500 and 1500 Somalis, as well as 18 American soldiers and 1 Malaysian soldier, died as a result in the First Battle of Mogadishu.
The United States withdrew its forces soon afterwards and the United Nations left Somalia in 1995.
President of Somalia
Aidid then declared himself President of Somalia in June 1995, but his government was not internationally recognized. Indeed within Somalia, and even within Mogadishu, his control was fiercely fought over, especially by Ali Mahdi Muhammad.
Aidid died on August 2, 1996 as a result of gunshot wounds sustained a week earlier in a fight with competing factions.
There have been persistent rumors (including articles in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today), that US Special Operations forces, or CIA Special Activities Division officers, were directly or indirectly involved with General Aidid's death.
Heir
Hussein Mohamed Farrah, son of General Aidid, migrated to the United States when he was 16 years old. He stayed 16 years in the nation and 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 selected him to become the new president of the Republic of Somalia.He resigned his position in Cairo, Egypt following a peace process between the Salbalar administration and Soodare Group. Hussein Mohammed Farrah is seen by the West as a chance of improvement for the relationships between them and Somalia. When asked about his Marine days, he replied: "Once a Marine, always a Marine.
Footnotes
References
- 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. *
- 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. August 16, 1996.
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Last updated on Wednesday July 23, 2008 at 06:08:53 PDT (GMT -0700)
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