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Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan
Somali politician and military official (1949–2025) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jaale Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan, better known as General Morgan (Somali: Maxamed Siciid Xirsi Moorgan; Arabic: محمد سعيد حيرسي مورغان; 1 January 1949 – 28 May 2025), was a Somali politician and senior military official. He served as Minister of Public Works and Housing from 1989 to 1990 and was the last Minister of Defence under Siad Barre's regime. Additionally, he held various position including Chief Commander of the Somali Armed Forces.[2] The general had a distinguished career with the Somali National Army. Most recently, he served as a security advisor for President of Puntland Said Abdullahi Deni, playing a significant role in the anti-ISIS campaign in Puntland.[3] He was the son-in-law of Siad Barre and belonged to the Harti sub-clan of the Majeerteen, part of the larger Darod tribe.[4] In his final years, General Morgan resided in Garoowe, Puntland, serving as a security advisor to the Puntland administration.
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Early life and education
Morgan was born on 1 January 1949 in Qardho district.[5][6] He studied at Haji Mire primary and secondary school in Bosaso, his father later sent him to Mogadishu, where he completed his education at a school then known as “Allaah.” Subsequently, the general joined the military. In 1967, he was among the officers sent by Somalia for military training in the Soviet Union, returning to the country in 1970.[7] Morgan's family lives in the United States.
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Career
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Siad Barre Government
Morgan received his military training in Italy and the United States. As a colonel, he was commander of the Mogadishu sector, where the elite units of the Armed Forces were stationed (ca. 1980).[a][8]
Morgan then went on to become commander of the Red Berets,[9][10] 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), in which he led numerous successful battles against the Somali National Movement (SNM) and overseen the bombardment of northern cities.[11] In September 1990 Morgan was appointed minister of defense and substitute head of state.[10] He was also minister of public works and housing from 1990 to 1991.[6] After the collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic, Morgan was a militia commander of the pro-Siad Barre group called the Somali National Front (1991–2003), which committed atrocities against the people between the Juba and Shabele rivers by skirmishes, killing, and destroying, the irrigation systems, and looting their stored grains (Bakaar), which ultimately led to the great 1992 Somali famine (Caga barar famine) in which nearly 300,000 people (mainly Digil and Mirifle) starved to death because of the aftermath of the rebel's genocidal tactics particularly Mohamed Farrah Aidid's refusal and looting of the humanitarian aid brought by Operations Restore Hope or the Unified Task Force (UTF).[12][failed verification] Morgan plainly stated in a public video[13] that "his militia are surviving on looted Rahwayn's grains", in order to promote the 'endurance' of his militia and motivate his tribal leaders to support his militia.[14]
Somali Civil War
Before the fall of the government and the subsequent civil war, Morgan was recognized as a state-sponsored war criminal. Morgan was one of the main government officials who spearheaded the state-sponsored genocide in Somaliland against the Isaaq clan. This information was thoroughly documented by Human Rights Watch. Morgan was never tried by the international courts for his crimes against humanity.[15]
In January 1986, Morgan, who was Barre's bodyguard before he married his daughter[6] reportedly told Isaaq nomads at a waterhole "if you Isaaqs resist, we will destroy your towns, and you will inherit only ashes".[16]
Morgan (later to be known as the Butcher of Hargeisa)[17] was also responsible for the policy letter written to his father-in-law during his time as the military governor of the north.[18] In this letter which came to be known as 'The Letter of Death',[19][20] he "proposed the foundations for a scorched-earth policy to get rid of 'anti-Somali germs'".[16]
The policy letter (also known as the Morgan Report)[21] was officially a top secret report to the president on "implemented and recommended measures" for a "final solution" to Somalia's "Isaaq problem".[22] Morgan indicated that the Isaaq people must be "subjected to a campaign of obliteration" in order to prevent them from "rais[ing] their heads again". He continued: "Today, we possess the right remedy for the virus in the [body of the] Somali State." Some of the "remedies" he discussed included: "Balancing the well-to-do to eliminate the concentration of wealth [in the hands of Isaaq]."[23] In addition, he called for "the reconstruction of the Local Council [in Isaaq settlements] in such a way as to balance its present membership which is exclusively from a particular people [the Isaaq]; as well as the dilution of the school population with an infusion of [Ogaden] children from the Refugee Camps in the vicinity of Hargeisa".[24]
More extreme recommendations included: "Rendering uninhabitable the territory between the army and the enemy, which can be done by destroying the water tanks and the villages lying across the territory used by them for infiltration"; and "removing from the membership of the armed forces and civil service all those who are open to suspicion of aiding the enemy – especially those holding sensitive posts".[22]
William Clarke writes that Morgan was appointed Somali National Army commander-in-chief on 25 November 1990.[25]
On 8 January 1993 Morgan 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.[26][27] However, fighting continued in the country unabated.
In December 1993, Morgan's troops captured Kismayo, and awaited the departure of Belgian UN peacekeepers who were stationed there. His troops had taken advantage of the UN's preoccupation with Mohamed Farah Aidid and had rearmed and regrouped.[28]
Transitional National Government
Morgan was present at the conclusion of the peace talks in Kenya (2002–2004) in which a transitional Somali Transitional National Government (later to become the Transitional Federal Government) was formed. This conclusion, however, was put to risk in September 2004 by the withdrawal of Morgan, who prepared his forces to attack Kismayo, controlled by the JVA which had ousted him in 1999.[29]
According to Amnesty International "his presence at the peace talks, more than any of the other warlords, had highlighted the significance of the issue of impunity and its effect on human rights in the future."[30]
In May 2005 Morgan left Nairobi to pay a short visit with his militia in Mogadishu and talked to representatives of the USC.[31] The battle between the militia and the Islamic Courts Union for the control of the capital would start in February 2006. Members of this same USC were victims of atrocities by Morgan's troops in 1992. In that year the SNF retook, with the assistance of the Kenyan military (in violation of a United Nations Security Council arms embargo), the Gedo region. In October 1992, the SNF captured the town of Bardera, committing atrocities against civilians who were thought to have supported the USC (solely on the basis of their clan identity) and greatly disrupting relief efforts.[32]
In 1991, when Morgan was the Minister of Defence in the Barre government, there were still 54,000 soldiers under his command. Fourteen years later, only 1,000 of them remained.[33]
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Death and funeral
On 28 May 2025, Mohamed Siad Hirsi Morgan died at a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. He was 76.[5] According to his family, as reported to Horseed Media, he had been unwell in Kenya for several days, having experienced stomach pain while in Bosaso, the commercial hub of Puntland in the Bari region.[7]
The general had been residing in Garowe, the capital of Puntland, where he served as a senior advisor to the Puntland President on matters concerning the restructuring of Puntland's armed forces.[34]
Shortly after the death, President Said Abdullahi Deni released a statement honoring Morgan's legacy, calling him a "states man, charismatic, and humility". His body should be transferred to Garowe capital of Puntland held an official state funeral and three days of mourning for Moorgan beginning on 28 May 2025. Several Somali politicians paid respect to him including former president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed,[35] Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre,[36] the Vice President of Puntland Ilyas Osman Lugator,[37] former vice-president of Puntland Ahmed Elmi Osman,[38] and Puntland minister of interior Abdi Farah Said Juha.[39]
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References
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