Military and armed-group figures
Ahmed Omar Jess (Axmed Cumar Jees)
Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess led one of the two wings of the Somali Patriotic Movement after 1991, drawing mainly on the Ogaden (Absame). Allied with General Mohamed Farrah Aidid, his forces held Kismayo from 1992 until 22 February 1993, when a militia aligned with General Mohamed Said Hersi 'Morgan' took the city. His wing joined Aidid's Somali National Alliance in 1992 and had largely stopped operating by 1994. Reports from the time record killings in Kismayo in 1992 attributed to forces aligned with him.
Ahmed Omar JessOmar Jess · Colonel Omar Jess
- Known as one of
- Military and armed-group figures
- Places
- Kismaayo and Lower Juba
- Era
- The Republic, 1960 to 1991; Rebuilding without a state, 1991 to 2012
- Sources
- 3 sources
In short
Ahmed Omar Jess was an army colonel who led the Absame (Ogaden) wing of the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM) in the fighting for Kismayo after 1991. This page records his public role from the sources, without taking sides.
The SPM and the split
Stanford's Mapping Militants project records that he played a key part in leading the SPM against the government of Siad Barre, and after its fall led one of the two wings into which the movement split; some reports say he did not found the group. The other wing was led by General Adan Abdullahi Gebiyu with General Mohamed Said Hersi "Morgan" (Mapping Militant Organizations, Somali Patriotic Movement). Wikipedia records that his wing joined General Mohamed Farrah Aidid's forces to form the Somali National Alliance in 1992 (Wikipedia, Somali National Alliance).
Kismayo, 1992–1993
The Christian Science Monitor reported in April 1993 that Jess's Ogaden militia had run Kismayo from early 1992 until February 1993, and that he had demanded that relief agencies dismiss Harti staff. On 22 February 1993 a Harti militia aligned with Morgan took the city, and Morgan in turn called for the dismissal of Ogaden employees. Jess, camped near Kismayo, told the paper he was ready to fight to take it back (Robert M. Press, Christian Science Monitor, 7 April 1993).
The same report quoted a Western diplomat describing "a brutal massacre of elite by the Ogadeni aligned with Jess" in December 1992; Harti leaders put the number killed at 749, a figure the paper did not verify (Christian Science Monitor). Both groups, the paper noted, are Darod sub-clans, related by marriage, and each claimed the earlier right to the city. The UN intervention was under way at the time.
Later years
Mapping Militants records that his wing had largely stopped operating by 1994 and that the Jess-led forces had controlled territory around Kismayo (Mapping Militants). The wider story of the fronts is told in Armed movements, 1978–1991.
Sources differ
- Founder or leader. Some accounts call him the SPM's founder; Mapping Militants notes reports that he was not.
- Killings in Kismayo, 1992. The figures come from Harti leaders and a diplomat's account; they have not been independently established.
Read the primary sources yourself
- Robert M. Press, "Clan rivalries rend fabric of Somali city", Christian Science Monitor (1993): article.
Sources
- Mapping Militant Organizations, Somali Patriotic Movement · mappingmilitants.org
- Wikipedia, Somali National Alliance · en.wikipedia.org
- Robert M. Press, Christian Science Monitor, 7 April 1993 · csmonitor.com
Ahmed Omar JessOmar Jess · Colonel Omar Jess
- Known as one of
- Military and armed-group figures
- Places
- Kismaayo and Lower Juba
- Era
- The Republic, 1960 to 1991; Rebuilding without a state, 1991 to 2012
- Sources
- 3 sources
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