Barre's vice-president who commanded the Ogaden War
After Barre was badly injured in a 1986 car crash, Samatar served as de facto head of state for several months.
A Frunze Military Academy-trained general, he was a key figure of the Siad Barre regime and the supreme commander of the Ogaden War. Defence minister from 1970 and vice-president from 1971, he was elected to the Politburo and as deputy secretary-general at the 1976 founding congress of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, embodying the military's hold over the party after the Supreme Revolutionary Council's dissolution. In 1987 he became the first prime minister since the 1969 coup, but a US court later ordered him to pay $21 million over the Isaaq genocide.
Career Timeline
- 1954–1956Trained at Italy's Casano di Roma infantry academy
- 1970Became minister of defence
- 1971Vice-president and commander-in-chief of the army
- 1976Politburo member and deputy secretary-general of the SRSP
- 1977–1978Commanded the national army in the Ogaden War
- 1987–1990Prime minister
- 1991Fled to the United States