Somali Democratic Alliance (SDA)

In short

The Somali Democratic Alliance (SDA) was the movement of the Gadabuursi (Dir) of the north-west, around Borama. It was one of several clan-based movements of the late 1980s, but it took a different path from the Somali National Movement (SNM) over the future of the north. This page records what the sources say, without taking sides on Somaliland's status. The region is described in Awdal.

Founding and leader

Wikipedia records that the SDA was founded in 1989 and led by Mohamed Farah Abdullahi, known as Hansharo, citing Redie Bereketeab's National Liberation Movements as Government in Africa (2017) and the Europa World Year Book 2002. It is distinct from the Horyaal Democratic Front, an earlier Gadabuursi movement that opposed the Derg on the Ethiopian side of the border (Wikipedia, Mohamed Farah Abdullahi). The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, citing Africa Events of April 1993 and US academics, also named him as leader and recorded that the SDA had no written agenda beyond its position on Somaliland (IRB, 16 February 1994, via ecoi.net).

The north-west, 1990–1992

An IRB response of September 1992, drawing on press reports and the researcher Patrick Gilkes, recorded that:

• Gadabuursi militias helped the Somali army retake Zeila and Loyada in April 1990;
• the Gadabuursi town of Dila was partly destroyed by the SNM, and some Gadabuursi refugees could not return;
• in February 1991 the SNM was accused of "ethnic cleansing" in the Borama area (the report gives no SNM response);
• fighting broke out in the town at the end of March 1992;
• the two Gadabuursi members of the SNM-led government resigned or were dismissed in early 1992

(IRB, 1 September 1992, via ecoi.net).

The split over Somaliland

After the SNM declared the Republic of Somaliland on 18 May 1991, the SDA divided. The September 1992 IRB response described three wings: one led by a recently dismissed Somaliland minister; one that said the SNM had broken its promises of fairness to all northern clans; and one that strongly backed Somali unity, whose leader was reported to be in Mogadishu working with Ali Mahdi Muhammad (IRB, 1992). By February 1994 the IRB described two factions: a larger one opposed to Somaliland's independence, and a smaller one that supported it and was represented in the Somaliland government (IRB, 1994). A November 1995 IRB response recorded that Gadabuursi openly linked to the anti-independence SDA might regard themselves as at risk in Somaliland (IRB, 15 November 1995, via ecoi.net).

Elders from all of Somaliland's clans met at the Borama conference of January to May 1993, which agreed a national charter (Charles G. Thomas and Toyin Falola, 2020, chapter 5, "Somaliland, 1991–present"). See Somaliland, 1991 to 2026.

Sources differ

• Number of wings. Three in 1992, two by 1994 (IRB).
• The leader's name. Given as Mohamed Farah Abdullahi, "Hansharo" and, in one 1994 account, "Hashari".
• The 1991 accusations. Recorded by the IRB from press reports; the sources read for this page do not give the SNM's answer.

Read the primary sources yourself

• Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, SOM16491.E (1994): document.
• Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, SOM11602 (1992): document.