Abdullah Mohamed Fadil

Abdullah Mohamed Fadil (Somali: Cabdallah Maxamed Fadhil, Arabic: عبد الله محمد فاضل‎; died January 1991), also known as Abdalla Mohamed Fadil,[1] was a prominent Somali military figure.

Abdalla Mohamed Fadil
Native name
Cabdallah Maxamed Fadhil
عبد الله محمد فاضل
DiedJanuary 1991
AllegianceSomalia
Service/branchSomali National Army
Years of service1950s–1990s
RankMajor General
Battles/warsOgaden War

Biography

Fadil was the son of a Yemeni musketeer from Taiz governorate with the Sultanate of Hobyo and a Majeerteen mother of the Nuh Jabrail family. Both parents served under Sultan Ali Yusuf Kenadid, heir to Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid.[2]

Fadil was the first Joint Chiefs of Staff and Commander of the Somali Armed Forces (SAF), and was a senior member of the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC). A Major General in the military,[3] he would also hold number of portfolios as a Minister, including as the Minister ofIndustry and Commerce, Minister of Health, Minister of Ports and Marine Transport, during the Siad Barre administration.[4]

In the 1970s Abdullah Mohamed Fadil and Muhammad Ali Samatar advised President Barre to select top Frunze graduates to lead the campaign in Ogaden against Ethiopia to liberate Somali territories and restore the greater Somalia. This was part of a broader effort to unite all of the Somali-inhabited territories in the Horn region into a Greater Somalia (Soomaaliweyn).[5]

Ogaden War

A distinguished graduate of the M. V. Frunze Military Academy General Fadil co-managed with General Samantar Somalia's military strategy. They selected the top military leaders from Frunze known as "Frunzites" preferring the Frunzites over the Italian trained Modena graduates . Fadil and Samnatar trusted their college mates, the top graduates of Frunze Military Academy in Moscow (Военнаяакадемия им М. В. Фрунзе), an elite Soviet institution reserved for the most qualified officers of the Warsaw Pact armies and their allies to lead the Ogaden Campaign. Fadil and Samantar selected the following:[6]

Col. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed commanded SNA in Negellie Front.

Col. Abdullahi Ahmed Irro commanded SNA in the Godey Front.

Col. Ali Hussein commanded SNA in Qabri Dahare Front. (Later chosen to support Harar campaign)

Col. Farah Handulle commanded SNA in the Warder Front.

General Yussuf Salhan Jigjiga Front

General Mohamed Nur Galaal assisted by Col. Mohamud Sh. Abdullahi Geelqaad commanded Dirir-Dewa. The SNA retreated from Dirir-Dewa. ( Galaal became Minister of Public Works and Leading member of the ruling Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party)

Col. Ali Isamil and Col. Abdulrahman Aare Degeh-Bur Front. (Later chosen to reinforce the Harar campaign)

Assassination in January 1991

Top Somali officials, Fadil, Samantar, among others were targeted for clan reasons as documented by Sica and Kapteijns. Following the outbreak of the civil war in 1991 and the collapse of the Barre regime, Mario Sica, then Italian ambassador to Mogadishu, documented that although the United Somali Congress (USC) professed that it was fighting against the Barre regime as a whole and not engaged in a clan-based struggle, public officials who belonged to the same clan as the USC's core constituents were not targeted. Instead, they were embraced as heroes while people like Fadil were targeted and assassinated.[7] Fadil is allegedly killed by a USC volunteer and the owner of midnight restaurant in Mogadishu solely for clan reasons.[2][7]

See also

References
  1. United Nations Development Programme. Office of the Resident Representative (Somalia) (1986). Somalia Annual Development Report. The Programme. p. 51.
  2. Ahmed III, Abdul. History of Somali Military Personnel. The Horn of Africa Policy Institute.
  3. The Weekly Review. Stellascope Limited. 1993. p. 35.
  4. Copley, Gregory R. (1987). Defense & Foreign Affairs Handbook. Perth Corporation. p. 840.
  5. Lewis, I.M.; The Royal African Society (October 1989). "The Ogaden and the Fragility of Somali Segmentary Nationalism". African Affairs. 88 (353): 573–579. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a098217. JSTOR 723037.
  6. Ahmed III, Abdul. "Brothers in Arms Part II" (PDF). WardheerNews. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 May 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  7. Kapteijns, Lidwien (2012). Clan Cleansing in Somalia: The Ruinous Legacy of 1991. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 133. ISBN 978-0812244670.
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