Somalia - Mohamed Farah Aidid and the Somalia National Alliance

"President" Mohamed Farah Aideed was killed in factional fighting in late July 1996. According to his enemies, he died "while killing people." Aideed liked the old school form of kritarchy, or traditional government, while his opponent Ali Mahdi wanted to be a Western puppet. Aideed led troops that killed 18 U.S. soldiers in 1993. That action resulted in the United States withdrawing its forces and blocking the UN effort to reconstruct the country. His Somalia National Alliance had been duking it out with Ali Mahdi's Somali Salvation Alliance. In reality, the chance of either side actually controlling all of Somalia is nonexistent. Aideed collected taxes from-or shot-anyone who crossed his "green line." His son has now taken on the mantle of being self-proclaimed president.

Aideed spent the end of the 1960s and early 1970s in prison for planning a coup against Barre. Barre for some reason freed Aideed and made him ambassador to India, Sri Lanka and Singapore to get him out of town. Aideed repaid him by forming the United Somali Congress (USC) which deposed Barre. Despite a lack of popular support, Ali Mahdi proclaimed himself President of the Republic of Somalia. In June 1991, Aideed was elected chairman of the United Somali Congress by a two-thirds vote, but Ali Mahdi refused to step down. By October 1991, Ali Mahdi had formed a government of eight ministers with the support of Italy. Naturally things went to hell very quickly and the fighting started. Ali Mahdi started it but Aideed had almost won when the UN stepped in. Mahdi was surrounded in Mogadishu allowing Aideed to go after Barre in the south. Siad Barre's army in southern Somalia had been looting food stores causing much of the famine. Mohamed Siad Barre, the ex-president of the Somali Republic, whose excesses finally undid him, was cozy with Egypt and a buddy of Boutros-Ghali's when Boutros-Ghali was with Egypt's Foreign Ministry. When Barre's man Aideed became Barre's enemy Aideed, Boutros-Ghali, understanding the exercise of power, targeted Aideed. He worked against him before the UN intervention, and it was during his tenure as secretary general, with his men ensconced in Mogadishu, that he allowed the U.S. functionaries to get so worked up over Aideed that they shifted the focus of the UN mission there. As Boutros-Ghali looked on, the United States went after Aideed.

The UN Security Council issued an arrest warrant for Aideed but he managed to elude both UN forces and U.S. troops. The United States never got Aideed. (Strangely enough while all this was going on DP saw Aideed attending a rubber chicken dinner in Nairobi on the front page of the local newspaper.) Despite the price on his head and the number of spooks who we assume can read a newspaper, nothing ever happened and the military continued its search-and-destroy mission at great cost in both money and, later on, lives. Between 6,000 and 10,000 Somalis were killed and 18 U.S. soldiers died.

Aideed was weakened by the defection of his sugar daddy, the wealthy Osman Ali Atto. Atto stepped on a land mine, and he lost most of his left foot. His dissatisfaction with Aideed split the Haber Gedirs.