Editing Somalia (section)

=== Coup d'État ===
On 15 October, while president Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke was touring drought-stricken Las Anood, his personal bodyguard shot and killed him. Former US Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]] concluded that the bodyguard was acting of his own accord.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/LOC-HAK-510-5-8-1.pdf |title=Political Implication of Assassination of Somali President |date=20 October 1969 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |access-date=13 January 2025}}</ref> Six days later, on 21 October, General [[Siad Barre]] led a military coup and successfully overthrew the parliamentary government. Modern political analysts assert that the coup was motivated by corruption in the parliamentary government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=L. Daniels |first=Christopher |title=Somali Piracy and Terrorism in the Horn of Africa |date=2012 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810883109 |page=12 |language=English}}</ref>  The bodyguard was tried, tortured and executed by the [[Supreme Revolutionary Council (Somalia)|Supreme Revolutionary Council]] (SRC). He came from the same clan background as the president who he killed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adan Sheikh |first=Mohamed |title=Arrivederci a Mogadiscio |date=1991 |publisher=Edizioni associate |isbn=9788826700700 |page=76 |language=italian}}</ref>
[[File:Mohamed_Ainanshe_and_Kim_Il_Sung_-1970.jpg|right|thumb|[[Mohamed Ainanshe Guled]] in [[North Korea]] meeting President [[Kim Il Sung]] 1970]]

Alongside Barre, the SRC that assumed power after President Sharmarke's assassination was led by Brigadier General [[Mohamed Ainanshe Guled]], Lieutenant Colonel [[Salaad Gabeyre Kediye]] and Chief of Police [[Jama Ali Korshel|Jama Korshel]]. Kediye officially held the title "Father of the Revolution", and Barre shortly afterwards became the head of the SRC.<ref>{{cite book | author = Hussein Mohamed Adam | author2 = Richard Ford | title = Mending rips in the sky: options for Somali communities in the 21st century | publisher = Red Sea Press | year = 1997 | page = 226 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0m9yAAAAMAAJ | isbn = 1-56902-073-6 | access-date = 20 June 2015 | archive-date = 23 January 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230123105443/https://books.google.com/books?id=0m9yAAAAMAAJ | url-status = live }}</ref> The SRC subsequently renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic,<ref>J. D. Fage, Roland Anthony Oliver (1985) ''The Cambridge history of Africa'', Vol. 8, Cambridge University Press, p. 478, {{ISBN|0-521-22409-8}}.</ref><ref name="Grolierenc">''The Encyclopedia Americana: complete in thirty volumes. Skin to Sumac'', Vol. 25, Grolier: 1995, p. 214, {{ISBN|0-7172-0126-0}}.</ref> dissolved the parliament and the Supreme Court, and suspended the constitution.<ref name="Pjdlfw">de la Fosse Wiles, Peter John (1982) [https://books.google.com/books?id=lgMOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA279 ''The New Communist Third World: an essay in political economy''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123105443/https://books.google.com/books?id=lgMOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA279 |date=23 January 2023 }}, Taylor & Francis, p. 279 {{ISBN|0-7099-2709-6}}.</ref>

The revolutionary government established large-scale public works programs and successfully implemented an urban and rural [[literacy]] campaign, which helped dramatically increase the literacy rate. The Somali Democratic Republic achieved a literacy rate of 70%, one of the highest in Africa at the time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Irving |first=Kaplan |title=Area Handbook for Somalia |volume= 550 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1977 |page=116 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Chijioke Njoku |first=Raphael |title=The History of Somalia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9780313378584 |page=111 |language=English}}</ref>

In addition to a nationalization program of industry and land, 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 February 1974.<ref>Benjamin Frankel (1992) ''The Cold War, 1945–1991: Leaders and other important figures in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, and the Third World'', Gale Research, p. 306 {{ISBN|0-8103-8928-2}}.</ref> That same year, Barre also served as chairman of the [[Organisation of African Unity]] (OAU), the predecessor of the [[African Union]] (AU).<ref>Oihe Yang (2000) ''Africa South of the Sahara 2001'', 30th ed., Taylor and Francis, p. 1025 {{ISBN|1-85743-078-6}}.</ref>

In July 1976, Barre's SRC disbanded itself and established in its place the [[Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party]] (SRSP), a one-party government based on [[scientific socialism]] and Islamic tenets. The SRSP was an attempt to reconcile the official state ideology with the official state religion by [[Revisionism (Marxism)|adapting Marxist precepts]] to local circumstances. Emphasis was placed on the Muslim principles of social progress, equality and justice, which the government argued formed the core of scientific socialism and its own accent on self-sufficiency, public participation and popular control, as well as direct ownership of the means of production. While the SRSP encouraged private investment on a limited scale, the administration's overall direction was essentially [[Communism|communist]].<ref name="Pjdlfw" />

In July 1977, the [[Ogaden War]] broke out after Barre's government used a plea for national unity to justify an [[War of aggression|aggressive]] incorporation of the predominantly Somali-inhabited [[Ogaden]] region of Ethiopia into a Pan-Somali [[Greater Somalia]], along with the rich agricultural lands of south-eastern Ethiopia, infrastructure, and strategically important areas as far north as Djibouti.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gebru Tareke|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=dRIfYPTZxJsC&pg=PA182 182–186]}}. The areas concerned amount to about a third of Ethiopia.</ref> In the first week of the conflict, Somali armed forces took southern and central Ogaden and for most of the war, the Somali army scored continuous victories on the Ethiopian army and followed them as far as [[Sidamo Province|Sidamo]]. By September 1977, Somalia controlled 90% of the Ogaden and captured strategic cities such as [[Jijiga]] and put heavy pressure on [[Dire Dawa]], threatening the train route from the latter city to Djibouti. After the siege of Harar, a massive unprecedented Soviet intervention consisting of 20,000 [[Cuba]]n forces and several thousand Soviet experts came to the aid of Ethiopia's communist [[Derg]] regime. By 1978, the Somali troops were ultimately pushed out of the Ogaden. This shift in support by the Soviet Union motivated the Barre government to seek allies elsewhere. It eventually settled on the Soviets' [[Cold War]] arch-rival, the [[United States]], which had been courting the Somali government for some time. Somalia's initial friendship with the Soviet Union and later partnership with the United States enabled it to build the largest army in Africa.<ref name="Ramsbotham 222">{{cite book |author=Oliver Ramsbotham |author2=Tom Woodhouse |year=1999 |title=Encyclopedia of international peacekeeping operations |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofin0000rams |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofin0000rams/page/222 222] |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=0-87436-892-8}}</ref>[[File:Muhammad Siad Barre - 40866X9X9.jpg|thumb|Major General [[Mohamed Siad Barre]], Chairman of the [[Supreme Revolutionary Council (Somalia)|Supreme Revolutionary Council]], meeting with President of Romania [[Nicolae Ceauşescu]]]]A new constitution was promulgated in 1979 under which elections for a People's Assembly were held. However, Barre's Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party [[politburo]] continued to rule.<ref name="Grolierenc"/> In October 1980, the SRSP was disbanded, and the Supreme Revolutionary Council was re-established in its place.<ref name="Pjdlfw"/> By that time, Barre's government had become increasingly unpopular. Many Somalis had become disillusioned with life under military dictatorship.

The regime was weakened further in the 1980s as the Cold War drew to a close and Somalia's strategic importance was diminished. The government became increasingly [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]], and [[resistance movement]]s, encouraged by Ethiopia, sprang up across the country, eventually leading to the [[Somali Civil War]]. Among the militia groups were the [[Somali Salvation Democratic Front]] (SSDF), [[United Somali Congress]] (USC), [[Somali National Movement]] (SNM) and the [[Somali Patriotic Movement]] (SPM), together with the non-violent political oppositions of the [[Somali Democratic Movement]] (SDM), the [[Factions in the Somali Civil War#Somali Democratic Alliance (SDA)|Somali Democratic Alliance]] (SDA) and the Somali Manifesto Group (SMG).