Mohamed Farrah Aidid

Mohamed Farrah Hasan Garad (15 December 1934 – 1 August 1996), commonly called General Aidid, was a Somali military officer, diplomat, and warlord.

He was educated in Rome and at the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow. In the 1950s, he served as a police chief in the Italian-run United Nations trusteeship security forces. After Somalia became independent in 1960, Aidid joined the Somali National Army, eventually reaching the rank of brigadier general. He commanded troops during the Ogaden War (1977–78) and the Border War (1982–83). From 1984 to 1989, he served as Somalia’s ambassador to India.

In 1989, as the rebellion against Siad Barre grew, Aidid became a major leader in the rebel United Somali Congress (USC) and later the Somali National Alliance (SNA). In early 1991, he and other armed groups overthrew Barre’s 22-year regime, triggering a full civil war. Aidid sought the presidency and tried to build alliances to form a national government.

After a clash on 5 June 1993 killed dozens of UNOSOM II troops, the SNA and Aidid were blamed, and the UN put him on its wanted list. Following the US-led Bloody Monday raid on 12 July 1993, which killed many prominent members of his Habr Gidr clan, Aidid began deliberately targeting American forces. President Bill Clinton responded with Operation Gothic Serpent, deploying Delta Force and Task Force Ranger to capture him. The high American casualties in the Battle of Mogadishu (3–4 October 1993) led UNOSOM to end its four-month mission. In December 1993, the U.S. Army flew Aidid to Addis Ababa for peace talks.

During a battle in Mogadishu between his militia and forces of former ally Osman Ali Atto, Aidid was fatally wounded by a sniper and died on 2 August 1996.

Aidid was born in 1934 in Beledweyne, Italian Somaliland, into the Habar Gidir subclan of the Hawiye clan. During the British Military Administration, he moved to Galkayo in Mudug to stay with a policeman cousin, who taught him to type and speak Italian. In 1950, under the Italian UN trusteeship, he enlisted in the Police Corps of Somalia. In 1954, he trained at an infantry school in Rome, then worked under senior Somali police officers. He became Chief of Police in Banaadir Province in 1958 and returned to Italy for further education the next year. He was a member of the Somali Youth League (SYL), the main independence party. Aidid later said he and other officers argued with Italian UN officials who opposed forming a Somali military, insisting that Ethiopia posed a threat and Somalia needed its own army.

After independence in 1960, Aidid joined the Somali National Army, was promoted to lieutenant, and became aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. Daud Abdulle Hirsi, the army’s first commander. He gained combat experience commanding troops in border skirmishes with Ethiopia before the 1964 war. Recognized as a highly qualified officer, he was selected for advanced postgraduate military science at the Frunze Military Academy in the Soviet Union, a three-year program for elite Warsaw Pact and allied officers.

In 1969, days after President Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke’s assassination, Major General Siad Barre led a bloodless coup. At the time, Aidid was a lieutenant colonel commanding the 26th Division in Hargeisa and head of operations for central and northern Somalia. After the assassination, he was recalled to Mogadishu to guard the president’s burial. By November 1969, he fell under suspicion by Barre and other senior coup leaders. Without trial, he was imprisoned in Mandera Prison for nearly six years, along with Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. Both were seen as ambitious officers who might lead a future coup. Aidid claimed his imprisonment came from urging Barre to hand power from the military to civilian technocrats.

Released in October 1975, Aidid returned to the army for the 1977–78 Ogaden War. During the conflict, he was promoted to brigadier general and became aide-de-camp to President Barre. Based in Hargeisa, he and Maj. Gen. Gallel commanded the 26th Division on the Dire Dawa front.