Editing British Somaliland (section)

===1945 Sheikh Bashir rebellion===
{{main|1945 Sheikh Bashir rebellion}}
[[File:Sheikh Bashir praying.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Sheikh Bashir praying [[Sunnah prayer]], 1920]]
The 1945 Sheikh Bashir Rebellion was an uprising by tribesmen of the [[Habr Je'lo]] clan in the cities of [[Burao]] and [[Erigavo]] in the former British Somaliland protectorate against British authorities in July 1945 led by [[Sheikh Bashir]], a [[Somalis|Somali]] religious leader belonging to the Yeesif sub-division.<ref name=":0">{{Cite thesis |title=Constructing colonial hegemony in the Somaliland protectorate, 1941-1960 |url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/14169 |date=1996 |degree=Thesis |language=en-US |first=Jama |last=Mohamed |access-date=2 June 2021 |archive-date=2 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602213326/https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/14169 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 2 July, Sheikh Hamza collected 25 of his followers in the town of [[Wadamago]] and transported them on a lorry to the vicinity of [[Burao]], where he distributed arms to half of his followers. On the evening of 3 July the group entered Burao and opened fire on the police guard of the central prison in the city, which was filled with prisoners arrested for previous demonstrations. The group also attacked the house of the district commissioner of [[Burao District]], Major Chambers, resulting in the death of Major Chamber's police guard before escaping to Bur Dhab, a strategic mountain south-east of Burao, where Sheikh Bashir's small unit occupied a fort and took up a defensive position in anticipation of a British counterattack.<ref>{{Cite book |last=of Rodd |first=Lord Rennell |title=British Military Administration in Africa 1941–1947 |publisher=HMSO |year=1948 |pages=481}}</ref>

The British campaign against Sheikh Hamza troops proved abortive after several defeats as his forces kept on the move. No sooner had the expedition left the area, than the news travelled fast among the Somali nomads across the plain. The war had exposed the British administration to humiliation. The government came to a conclusion that another expedition against him would be useless; that they must build a railway, make roads and effectively occupy the whole of the protectorate, or else abandon the interior. The latter course was decided upon and during the first months of 1945, the advance posts were withdrawn and the British administration confined to the coast town of [[Berbera]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Taariikhdii Halgamaa: Sheekh Bashiir Sh. Yuusuf. W/Q: Prof Yaxye Sheekh Caamir {{!}} Laashin iyo Hal-abuur |date=11 January 2018 |url=https://laashin.com/taariikhdii-halgamaa-sheekh-bashiir-sh-yuusuf-wq-prof-yaxye-sheekh-caamir/ |access-date=2021-05-31 |language=en-US |archive-date=18 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818010238/https://laashin.com/taariikhdii-halgamaa-sheekh-bashiir-sh-yuusuf-wq-prof-yaxye-sheekh-caamir/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Sheikh Bashir settled many disputes among the tribes in the vicinity, which kept them from raiding each other. He was generally thought to settle disputes through the use of Islamic [[Sharia]] and gathered around him a strong following.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Sheekh Caamir |first=Prof. Yaxye |date=11 January 2018 |title=Taariikhdii Halgamaa: Sheekh Bashiir Sh. Yuusuf |journal=Laashin}}</ref>

Sheikh Bashir sent a message to religious figures in the town of [[Erigavo]] and called on them to revolt and join the rebellion he led. The religious leaders as well as the people of Erigavo heeded his call, and mobilized a substantial number of people armed with rifles and spears and staged a revolt. The British authorities responded rapidly and severely, sending reinforcements to the town and opening fire on the armed mobs in two "local actions" as well as arresting minor religious leaders in the town.<ref>{{Cite book |last=of Rodd |first=Lord Rennell |title=British Military Administration in Africa 1941–1947 |publisher=HMSO |year=1948 |pages=482}}</ref>

The British administration recruited [[India]]n and [[South Africa]]n troops, led by police general James David, to fight against Sheikh Bashir and had intelligence plans to capture him alive. The British authorities mobilized a police force, and eventually on 7 July found Sheikh Bashir and his unit in defensive positions behind their fortifications in the mountains of Bur Dhab. After clashes Sheikh Bashir and his second-in-command, Alin Yusuf Ali, nicknamed Qaybdiid, were killed. A third rebel was wounded and was captured along with two other rebels. The rest fled the fortifications and dispersed. On the British side the police general leading the British troops as well as a number of Indian and South African troops perished in the clashes, and a policeman was injured.

Despite the death of Sheikh Hamza and his followers resistance against British authorities continued in Somaliland, especially in Erigavo where his death stirred further resistance in the town and the town of [[Badhan, Sanaag|Badhan]] and lead to attacks on British colonial troops throughout the district and the seizing of arms from the rural constabulary.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mohamed |first=Jama |date=2002 |title='The Evils of Locust Bait': Popular Nationalism during the 1945 Anti-Locust Control Rebellion in Colonial Somaliland |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3600720 |journal=Past & Present |issue=174 |pages=184–216 |doi=10.1093/past/174.1.184 |jstor=3600720 |issn=0031-2746 |access-date=2 June 2021 |archive-date=19 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119032047/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3600720 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The British authorities was not finished with the rebels even after most of them had died and continued its counter-insurgency campaign. The authorities had quickly learned the names and identities of all the followers of Sheikh Bashir and tried to convince the locals to turn them in. When they refused, the authorities invoked the ''Collective Punishment Ordinance'', under which the authorities seized and impounded a total of 6,000 camels owned by the [[Habr Je'lo]], the clan that Sheikh Bashir belonged to. The British authorities made the return of the livestock dependent on the turning over and arrest of the escaped rebels.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Annual Colonial Office Report on the Somaliland Protectorate, 1948 |pages=31}}</ref> The remaining rebels were subsequently found and arrested, and transported to the [[Zeila Archipelago|Saad-ud-Din archipelago]], off the coast of [[Zeila]] in northwestern Somaliland.