Who Assassinated The Somali President In October 1969?

The Cold War and the clan dynamics

While preparations for the burial were underway, a long-held traditional clan animosity came to the fore, which was the result of the revulsion and repulsion to Abdirashid and his administration. To the surprise of many, the assassinated president was denied burial in a national cemetery in Mogadishu by members of the Murusade clan of the Hawiye clan-group.⁶³ Even though he was a religious man adhering to Sufi Islam, Abdirashid was not a leader who could attract people’s hearts and minds. Many Somalis viewed the assassination as a way of extricating themselves from a corrupt administration. While Radio Mogadishu maintained calls for prayer for the assassinated president, the death of Abdirashid rarely generated sympathy.

To add insult to injury, the political brokers who shared the same subclan genealogical affiliation with the president argued, not without a sultanistic style, that they were the legitimate heirs to his position and suggested that his successor should be one of their own. They thus proposed Haji Muuse Boqor Osman, their clan leader in Mogadishu, as a substitute for Abdirashid. Muuse. Boqor himself contended that he was the “rightful heir to the presidency.”⁶⁴ Peoples’ rage was further aggravated when Egaal entertained the proposal put forward by several prominent Daarood elders, such as Omar Mo’allim Mohamed and Haji Yusuf Egaal— who suggested that the Osman Mohamoud clan chief had to replace Abdirashid. In effect, Somalia seemed to be turning into a clan property, when political players (Egaal among them), acting on behalf of such a clan recommendation, later nominated Muuse Boqor as the official government party (Somali Youth League, or SYL) candidate for the uncontested post of the presidency.

Apart from clan chieftaincy, Boqor was a political broker connected to the administration in several ways. Since Abdirashid usurped power, Boqor enjoyed a special favor for land properties and other profitable businesses and the administration would grant him a license to be the only trader to import gold to Somalia. The official bulletin shows that his position was uninterrupted from 1960 until 1969.⁶⁵ A kind of a kingmaker, Boqor also shared a business enterprise with the then Interior Minister Yasin Nur Hassan Bidde. More tellingly, Boqor and his fellow political broker Omar Mo’allim, the former Somali ambassador to the United States, had close contact with Americans. This part political and part business connection was a serious concern to the Soviets. The Soviets apparently believed that Omar Mo’allim was an agent for the CIA.⁶⁶ Sheikh Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein, the president of the parliament, who assumed presidency of the republic upon Abdirashid’s assassination, recounted that the Soviet ambassador to Mogadishu approached him once the preparation for the president’s successor started and discussed with him the looming repercussions for Somalia under a Boqor government, whom the Soviets had considered an American puppet.⁶⁷

Concerns surrounding the suggestion of Boqor as president coincided with the controversies at the National Parliament over who should replace Abdirashid. Many Somalis “were disgusted by the self-serving posture of the political debate and by the very limited qualifications of the proposed successor.”⁶⁸ It was in this spirit that a furious group of government party parliamentarians, such as Ismail Jimale Ossoble and Aadan Isaaq Axmed, two former ministers, one Hawiye, the other Dir, strongly rebuffed Boqor’s nomination. Instead, Ismail Jimale recommended Abdullahi Iise Mohamoud, the former prime minister during decolonization, to be the government’s candidate for president. Iise, a popular nationalist figure, albeit but with limited oratory skills, lacked a clan base. He departed and deserted his clan for a commitment to Somali nationalism. His subclan, Sa’ad of the Habar Gidir, blamed him—as did Aden Adde’s Udeejeen clan—for not upholding their interests, unlike his peers from other rival clans. Due to the bickering over Abdirashid’s successor, ordinary people were losing patience as Egaal showed a strong commitment to using whatever state resources at his disposal to get Boqor elected to the presidential post.⁶⁹

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