# Somali Democratic Movement (SDM)

> The Somali Democratic Movement, the Digil and Mirifle movement founded in 1989: its place in the Somali National Alliance, the 1993 Baidoa congress and council, and its successor, the RRA.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/institutions/somali-democratic-movement/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
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## In short

The Somali Democratic Movement (SDM) was the main organisation of the [Digil](/en/society/digil/) and [Mirifle](/en/society/mirifle/), often called the Rahanweyn, the Maay-speaking farming and herding communities of Bay and Bakool, from 1989 until the mid-1990s. This page records what the sources say, without taking sides. The region is described in [Baidoa and Bay](/en/regions/bay/) and [Bakool](/en/regions/bakool/).

## Founding

Wikipedia's list of civil-war factions gives April 1989 as its founding date, citing [Mohamed Haji Mukhtar](/en/people/mohamed-haji-mukhtar/)'s *Historical Dictionary of Somalia* (2003), and lists among its leaders [Mohamed Qanyare Afrah](/en/people/mohamed-qanyare-afrah/) and M. Ali Dheere ([Wikipedia, Factions in the Somali Civil War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Democratic_Movement)). It was one of the clan-based fronts that formed against the government of [Siad Barre](/en/people/siad-barre/) in the late 1980s; see [Armed movements, 1978–1991](/en/history/armed-movements-1978-1991/).

## In the Somali National Alliance, 1992

On 16 June 1992 a wing of the SDM was one of four movements that founded the [Somali National Alliance](/en/institutions/somali-national-alliance/) at [Bardere](/en/regions/baardheere/), with General [Mohamed Farrah Aidid](/en/people/mohamed-farrah-aidid/)'s wing of the [United Somali Congress](/en/institutions/united-somali-congress/) ([Wikipedia, Somali National Alliance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_National_Alliance)). Other members sided with [Ali Mahdi Muhammad](/en/people/ali-mahdi-muhammad/).

## The 1993 congress and the Baidoa council

The *Christian Science Monitor* reported from Baidoa in September 1993 that, at an SDM congress held under UN guard in March 1993, representatives of both Aidid and Ali Mahdi had been replaced by new leaders aligned with neither. In August 1993 a UN-assisted district council was formed in Baidoa. The activist Hussein M. Idriss called it "the first truly Rahanweyn government since independence"; the elder Malag Moktar pressed the UN on disarmament, saying many weapons remained hidden ([Robert M. Press, *Christian Science Monitor*, 8 September 1993](https://www.csmonitor.com/1993/0908/08022.html)). See [The UN intervention, 1992–1995](/en/history/un-intervention-1992-1995/).

## After 1995

In March 1995 the Digil and Mirifle set up a Supreme Governing Council in Baidoa. On 17 September 1995 Aidid's forces took the town and ended the council, and on 13 October 1995 the [Rahanweyn Resistance Army](/en/institutions/rahanweyn-resistance-army/) was founded to oppose them ([Wikipedia, Rahanweyn Resistance Army](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahanweyn_Resistance_Army)). The RRA took Baidoa in June 1999 and became the region's main armed movement.

## Sources differ

- **Founding.** April 1989 (Mukhtar, via Wikipedia) or "late 1980s"; one list gives 1991.
- **Leaders.** Lists differ, and some names given for the SDM, such as Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, are better known from other movements.
- **Alignment.** Parts of the movement backed Aidid and parts Ali Mahdi; the 1993 congress tried to end both links.

## Read the primary sources yourself

- Robert M. Press, "A local council grows in Somalia", *Christian Science Monitor* (1993): [article](https://www.csmonitor.com/1993/0908/08022.html).

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