Workers League - Behind the US invasion of Somalia - Mehring Books

government placed its stamp not least upon the way in which it went
about attempting to achieve the goal it had set for itself, that is, the
political unification of the Somali people throughout the region.
The government first appealed to the rising national leaders in
other African colonies for assistance in settling the issue. In 1962, on
the eve of Kenyan independence, for instance, the Somali government
invited Jomo Kenyatta, the head of the leading Kenyan African
nationalist party, to Mogadishu for informal talks. 17
Kenyatta had
until recently been imprisoned for his opposition to British rule in
Kenya, but he firmly opposed the unification of the Somali people in
the Northern Frontier District with Somalia. Kenyatta made it clear
to the Somali regime that he regarded the NFD an inalienable part
of Kenya.
This was to be the attitude adopted by the vast majority of the
African nationalists, who proved to be staunch defenders of the
colonial boundaries. Britain, too, proclaimed that the NFD would
remain part of Kenya after independence.
This failure of the government to secure political support for
Somali unification had a profound impact on subsequent events. In
1963, Somalia broke relations with Kenya and Britain, while tension
began to mount with Ethiopia as well over its control of the disputed
territory of the Ogaden. Addis Ababa was being supplied with
military aid by the US, so Somalia sought concomitant support
wherever it could find it. In November 1963, Somalia accepted
military aid worth nearly $30 million from the Soviet Union, having
rejected a smaller offer of Western aid. The following year the
dispute with Ethiopia led to fighting for the first time, and Somalia
signed further agreements with the Soviet Union.
In June 1967, Ali Shermarke became president of Somalia and
Mohammed Hadji Ibrahim Egal, prime minister. Egal, was the leader
of the Somali National Movement, which had been the main Somali
party in British Somaliland. The following year, diplomatic relations
with Kenya and Britain were resumed, but relations with Ethiopia
deteriorated further with the growth of the Western Somali Liberation
Front, which was contesting Ethiopia's control of the Ogaden.
In October 1969, Shermarke was assassinated. One week later, the
army seized control in a coup, and Mohammed Siad Barre, the head
of the armed forces, proclaimed the Somali Democratic Republic.
Davidson describes the events leading up to the coup in these
terms: "Presented as a multiparty system with the highest credentials,
the constitution had led directly and indeed logically to a one-party