page_title: Somali Civil War
section_title: United Somali Congress topples Barre
hierarchical_section_title: Somali Civil War / United Somali Congress topples Barre
caption_attribution_description: English: Three abandoned Somali (US Manufactured) M47 Tanks sit destroyed amongst some trees near a warehouse. The US Army's 10th Mountain Division (not shown) stumbled across the abandoned tank. This mission is in support of Operation Restore Hope.
context_page_description: The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. By 1988–1990, the Somali Armed Forces began engaging various armed rebel groups, including the Somali Salvation Democratic Front in the northeast, the Somali National Movement in the northwest, and the United Somali Congress in the south. The clan-based armed opposition groups overthrew the Barre government in 1991.
  Various armed factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum and turmoil that followed, particularly in the south. In 1990–92, customary law temporarily collapsed due to the fighting. This precipitated the arrival of UNOSOM I UN military observers in July 1992, followed by larger peacekeeping forces. Factional fighting continued in the south. In the absence of a central government, Somalia became a "failed state". The UN withdrew in 1995, having incurred significant casualties, but no central authority had yet been reestablished. After the central government's collapse, there was some return to customary and religious law in most regions.
context_section_description: By mid-1990, United Somali Congress (USC) rebels had captured most towns and villages surrounding Mogadishu, which prompted some to give Barre the ironic title 'Mayor of Mogadishu.' In December the USC entered Mogadishu. Four weeks of battle between Barre's remaining troops and the USC ensued, during which the USC brought more forces into the city. By January 1991, USC rebels defeated the Red Berets in the process toppling Barre's government. The remainder of the government's forces then finally collapsed. Some became irregular regional forces and clan militias. After the USC's victory over Barre's troops, the other rebel groups declined to cooperate with it, as each instead drew primary support from its own constituency. Among these other opposition movements were the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM) and Somali Democratic Alliance (SDA), a Gadabuursi group which had been formed in the northwest to counter the Somali National Movement Isaaq militia. For its part, the SNM initially refused to accept the legitimacy of the provisional government that the USC had established, but in March 1991 the SNM's former leader Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo proposed a power-sharing framework between the SNM and USC under a new transitional government.
  Many of the opposition groups subsequently began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed the ouster of Barre's government. In the south, armed factions led by USC commanders General Mohamed Farah Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohamed, in particular, clashed as each sought to exert authority over the capital. In the northwest, at the Burao conference of April–May 1991, SNM secessionists proclaimed independence for the region under the name Somaliland, selecting SNM leader Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur as president.
  In 1992, after four months of heavy fighting for control of Mogadishu, a ceasefire was agreed between Ali Mahdi Mohamed and Mohamed Farah Aideed. Neither had seized control of the capital, and as a result, a 'greenline' was established between north and south that divided their areas of control.
caption: Three knocked-out Somali National Army (SNA) M47 Patton medium tanks left abandoned near a warehouse following the outbreak of the civil war
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