Somali National Alliance Isbahaysiga Qaranka Soomaaliyeed | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | SNA |
Chairman | Mohamed Farrah Aidid Osman Ali Atto Hussein Farrah Aidid |
Founded | 16 June 1992 |
Dissolved | 2002 |
Split from | United Somali Congress |
Merged into | Somalia Reconciliation and Restoration Council and Transitional National Government |
Headquarters | Mogadishu |
Ideology | Hawiye interests Anti-Barre Anti-colonialism Somali nationalism National Reconciliation |
Religion | Sunni Islam |
The Somali National Alliance (abbreviated SNA) was a major politico-military faction formed on 16 June 1992 by four different rebel groups that had been in opposition to the regime of former Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre. The SNA was the first major inter-clan and inter-factional political alliance and was considered to be among the most powerful factions of the Somali Civil War. The alliance would most notably face off against the second phase of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM II) in the latter half of 1993.
Following the 1991 split in the United Somali Congress (USC) between Mohamed Farah Aidid and his primary rival Ali Mahdi Muhammad and the routing of Barre's forces out of Somalia and into Kenya during 1992, a tentative military coalition that had existed between different rebel organizations would morph into the politico-military organization known as the SNA. The alliance would include Aidid's breakaway wing of the USC, the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), the Somali Southern National Movement (SSNM) and Somali Democratic Movement (SDM). The organization professed the goal of working toward forming a national reconciliation government and an eventual multi-party democracy.
The SNA would ultimately become the core of the Somalia Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), formed in 2001, which would be incorporated into the internationally recognized Transitional National Government in 2002.