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Somalia Coup d'Etat
The stage was set for a coup d'état, but the event that
precipitated the coup was unplanned. On October 15, 1969, a
bodyguard killed president Shermaarke while prime minister Igaal
was out of the country. (The assassin, a member of a lineage said
to have been badly treated by the president, was subsequently
tried and executed by the revolutionary government.) Igaal
returned to Mogadishu to arrange for the selection of a new
president by the National Assembly. His choice was, like
Shermaarke, a member of the Daarood clan-family (Igaal was an
Isaaq). Government critics, particularly a group of army
officers, saw no hope for improving the country's situation by
this means. On October 21, 1969, when it became apparent that the
assembly would support Igaal's choice, army units took over
strategic points in Mogadishu and rounded up government officials
and other prominent political figures. The police cooperated with
the army.
Although not regarded as the author of the military takeover,
army commander Major General Mahammad Siad Barre assumed
leadership of the officers who deposed the civilian government.
The new governing body, the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC),
installed Siad Barre as its president. The SRC arrested and
detained at the presidential palace leading members of the
democratic regime, including Igaal. The SRC banned political
parties, abolished the National Assembly, and suspended the
constitution. The new regime's goals included an end to
"tribalism, nepotism, corruption, and misrule." Existing treaties
were to be honored, but national liberation movements and Somali
unification were to be supported. The country was renamed the
Somali Democratic Republic.
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