Hersi "Morgan"
| General Morgan | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Minister of Defense | |
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In office 1990 – 26 January 1991 |
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| President | Siad Barre |
| Personal details | |
| Nationality | Somali |
| Political party | Somali Patriotic Movement |
| Relations | Siad Barre (father-in-law) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Somali Democratic Republic |
Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan (Somali: Maxamed Siciid Xirsi Moorgan;Arabic: محمد سعيد هيرسي مورغان) is a Somali military and faction leader. He was the son-in-law of Siad Barre and Minister of Defense of Somalia. Said Hersi. His military campaign in Southern Somalia in 1992 was one of the main causes of the famine in Somalia.
Mohammed Said Hersi received his military training in both Italy and the USA. As a colonel he was commander of the Mogadishu sector, where the elite units of the Armed Forces were stationed (ca. 1980). He then went on to become commander of the Red Berets, responsible for the suppression of the revolt of the Majerteen united in the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) in 1982. From 1986 to 1988, as a general, he was the military commander of the 26th Sector (the region of Somaliland) and in September 1990 he was appointed as minister of defense and substitute head of state.
In 1988, operations conducted by the Barre government against Somali National Movement (SNM) rebels in the northern part of the country led to the death and imprisonment of thousands of Somali civilians by the Somali National Army. Hersi Morgan was in charge of these operations, and thus became known as the "Butcher of Hargeisa."
Mohammed Said Hersi led the shelling and bombing of Hargeisa in response to the city being taken over by the SNM. The shelling and subsequent battles that took place in the North of Somalia led the deaths of an estimated 50 - 60,000 people.
After the fall of the government on 26 January 1991 Mohammed Said Hersi together with Siad Barre fled from Mogadishu to the South-West of the country. In Gedo he regrouped the army. Together with Barre's son General Maslah, Mohammed Said Hersi went abroad through Kenya on an arms purchasing mission. According to a report of the Minority Rights Group based in Britain they purchased $27 Million worth of arms and petroleum at various black markets. Mohammed Said Hersi became the chairman of the newly founded Somali National Front (SNF); the remains of the Somali National Army functioned as its militia. The SNF made two efforts (one in April 1991 and the other in April 1992) to recapture the capital Mogadishu. Both efforts failed. The SNF was vanquished by the USC and pushed back to the Kenyan border. It later survived in a diminished form in and around Kismayo. Mohammed Said Hersi then tried to unite the Marehan with the other Darod (Ogaden and Majeerteen) to conquer the region around Kismayo. Siad Barre fled to Kenya in April 1992. On January 8, 1993 Mohammed Said Hersi was one of the signatories of agreement reached at the UN-sponsored Informal Preparatory Meeting on National Reconciliation, and the March 1993 Conference on National Reconciliation in Somalia, both in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. However, fighting continued in the country unabated.
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