Somali National Movement (SNM), 1981–1991

In short

The Somali National Movement (SNM) was one of the four main armed movements that fought the military government between 1978 and 1991. The wider story of all four is told in The armed movements against military rule, 1978–1991. This page goes deeper into the SNM itself: who founded it, how it was led and paid for, how it fought, and what it became.

Its support came mainly from the Isaaq clans of the north-west (Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study). Several other clans took part, and it presented itself as a national movement (Wikipedia, Somali National Movement).

Founding, 1981

The Library of Congress records that the SNM was founded in London in 1981 by Isaaq dissidents (Library of Congress). Wikipedia gives the date as 6 April 1981 and names among the founders Hassan Isse Jama, Hassan Adan Wadadid, Ahmed Mohamed Gulaid and Omar Elmi Dihood, several of them former diplomats. Some accounts place the formal founding in Jeddah in the same month, because many of the first members lived in Saudi Arabia (Wikipedia).

Its first publication, Somalia Uncensored, was printed in London from June to December 1981 and edited by Hassan Isse Jama, a former BBC Somali Service broadcaster (same source).

Leaders

Accounts describe the SNM as the front with the most regular internal elections: it had five chairmen, each elected by its central committee or congress (Wikipedia, citing Ridout, Journal of the Middle East and Africa, 2012).

• Ahmed Mohamed Gulaid, 1981–1982 (elected in October 1981, with Ahmed Ismail Abdi "Duksi" as secretary-general)
• Yusuf Sheikh Ali Madar, 1982–1983
• Colonel Abdiqadir Kosar Abdi, 1983–1984
• Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud "Silanyo", 1984–1990. He later became president of Somaliland; see Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud Silanyo.
• Abdirahman Ahmed Ali "Tuur", 1990–1991, who became Somaliland's first president; see Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur.

The armed wing and the move to Ethiopia

Wikipedia traces the armed wing to "Afraad", the Fourth Brigade of the Western Somali Liberation Front, formed with Isaaq officers. From February 1982 Isaaq officers and Fourth Brigade fighters crossed into Ethiopia and became the core of the SNM's forces (Wikipedia, citing I. M. Lewis, Blood and Bone, 1994).

In 1982 the SNM moved its headquarters to Dire Dawa in Ethiopia and began raids into Woqooyi Galbeed and Togdheer (Library of Congress). Ethiopia's government under Mengistu Haile Mariam hosted its bases until the April 1988 Barre–Mengistu agreement (Library of Congress).

How it was paid for

Wikipedia, drawing on studies by Dominik Balthasar and William Reno, records that the SNM had no single foreign sponsor. Money was collected mainly through clan networks, above all among Isaaq workers and traders in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, each community raising a set amount. Inside the country, households were asked for a young man and a sheep. Traders in Dire Dawa used SNM radios to move money to fighters, and the money-transfer company Dahabshiil began as one of its financiers (Wikipedia).

Main actions

• 2 January 1983, Mandera. SNM commandos attacked Mandera prison near Berbera and the Cadaadle armoury. The Library of Congress records that the raid freed northern dissidents (Library of Congress). The SNM said more than 700 were freed; independent estimates said about a dozen (Wikipedia).
• 27–31 May 1988, Burao and Hargeisa. After the Barre–Mengistu accord, the SNM moved its fighters into Somalia and attacked both cities. Wikipedia cites an estimate of 3,000 to 5,000 SNM fighters. The army retook the towns by the end of July 1988 with heavy bombing (Library of Congress; Wikipedia).
• January–February 1991. The SNM took the remaining garrisons at Berbera, Burao and Hargeisa (Library of Congress).

Harm to civilians, as the records describe it

The government's response in the north was the deadliest part of the war; Africa Watch estimated 50,000 to 60,000 dead by early 1990 (Human Rights Watch, World Report 1990). Many Somalis and several scholars call the campaign against the Isaaq a genocide.

The records also describe harm by SNM fighters. A 1989 US State Department study by Robert Gersony, Why Somalis Flee, reported that in 1988 SNM fighters attacked nine of twelve UN-run refugee camps in the north-west, killing more than 400 refugees, about 60% of them children (Wikipedia, citing Gersony 1989). The SNM said the camps had been armed by the government; Gersony found no sign of this (same source).

From movement to government, 1991

In February 1991 SNM leaders met Ciise, Gadabuursi, Dhulbahante and Warsangeli representatives at Berbera. At the Burao conference of the northern clans (27 April–18 May 1991), the SNM central committee and elders declared the Republic of Somaliland on 18 May 1991, with Abdirahman Tuur as president for two years (Wikipedia; Library of Congress). The 1993 Borama conference then chose Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal as president. What followed is told in Somaliland, 1991 to 2026.

Sources differ

• Where it was founded. London (Library of Congress) or Jeddah (some accounts cited by Wikipedia), both in April 1981.
• Mandera. More than 700 freed (SNM) or about a dozen (independent estimates).
• Refugee camps, 1988. The SNM's claim that camps were armed is disputed by the Gersony report.

Read the primary sources yourself

• Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study (1993): Opposition movements, Succession, Relations with Ethiopia.
• Human Rights Watch, World Report 1990, Somalia: text.