Siad Barre — Politicians

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

He ruled Somalia for 21 years after seizing power in a 1969 coup, turning the country into a Marxist-Leninist state and later launching a disastrous war with Ethiopia. His regime's collapse in 1991 left Somalia in a civil war it has never escaped.

Biography

About

Mohammed Siad Barre was commander of the Somali National Army when he took power on 21 October 1969, days after President Abdirashid Shermarke's assassination. His military junta reconstituted Somalia as a one-party Marxist-Leninist state, pursuing modernization, nationalization, cooperative farms, and a new Somali writing system while suppressing tribalism. In 1977 he launched the Ogaden War to capture Ethiopia's Somali region, and for seven months held virtually all of it — his peak popularity. Defeat by early 1978 severed Soviet ties and began his decline. Through the 1980s opposition mount…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Siad Barre

Siad Barre

said29 Jan 1994

The day Kafur clans fight each other like never before will never stop ( 29 January 1994 )

Siad Barre

said27 Jan 1991

When I leave Somalia I will leave buildings but not people.

— Last words in power (27 January, 1991), as quoted by Mahamud M. Yahya.Siad Barre s Military Coup: 40 Years Later, Mareeg (n.d.)

Siad Barre

said1 May 1978

I did not come to power to divide Somali but to unite them, and I will never deviate from this path.

— Mogadiscio Domestic Service in Somali, 0448 GMT (1 May 1978).

Siad Barre

said1 May 1978

We should teach the foreigners and colonialists that Somalia cannot be led by other people and that the traitors who fled the country will never lead Somalia.

— Domestic Service in Somali, 0448 GMT (1 May 1978).

Siad Barre

said20 Oct 1970