SUMMARY
SSDF (Somali Salvation Democratic Front) was a Somali rebel group, formed in 1981 by several different organisations, among them SOSAF (Somali Salvation Front), SODAF (Somali Democratic Action Front) and some smaller communist parties. SOSAF had been formed by Somali army officers, from mainly, but not exclusively, the Majerteen clan (Darod), who had fled after a failed coup attempt against Somali president Siad Barre in 1978.
SSDF received most of its support from members of the Majerteen sub-clan (Darod) and was formed partially due to grievances against what they saw as the Barre regime’s preferential treatment of the Marehan sub-clan (Darod). Though the group was actively engaged in fighting Somalia’s government in the early 1980s, it was mainly based outside the country. SSDF’s headquarters were located in Ethiopia and it was also from there that the group broadcasted its radio programs with anti-Barre messages. The Somali government repeatedly blamed Ethiopia for attacks inside Somalia. The Ethiopian government, however, denied any involvement and SSDF often claimed responsibility. However, it is widely reported that Ethiopia in fact conducted attacks and gave military support to both SSDF and their fellow Somali rebel group SNM (Somali National Movement). SSDF was in fact closely cooperating with the Ethiopian government, acting as a supporting party, even a proxy force, for the Addis regime in the Ogaden conflict against WSLF (Western Somali Liberation Front) in 1980 (for more information on this, see the Ethiopia (Ogaden) section of the database). SSDF also cooperated militarily at least once with SNM in the conflict with the Barre regime.
It has been argued that SSDF, at some point in the 1980s, considered siding with the government in the armed struggle, but no such plans ever materialised. After the regime had fallen in 1991 SSDF moved in and occupied large parts of northeast Somalia, more specifically Bari, Nugal, and parts of north Mudug.
The founder and first leader of SSDF was Abdullahi Yusuf who ran the outfit with an iron fist. When he was arrested in 1986, the organisation all but collapsed. In 1989 the group was re-founded in Rome and after 1991 it was led by General Mohamed Abshir Muse.
SSDF was a leading organisation in the north-eastern parts of Somalia throughout the 1990s and played a crucial role in the conference that declared itself the independent state of Puntland in 1998. At the conference Yusuf was elected President of Puntland. The region has not been internationally recognized and has since also declared that the goal of Puntland is to become a state within a greater republic of Somalia, once Somalia has recovered from the long-going conflict. In light of this UCDP does not code Puntland as a political entity until 1998, after which, due to the lack of international recognition, Puntland has been recorded as a non-state actor within Somalia. Puntland’s first president, Yusuf, was in 2004 elected President of Somalia within the internationally recognized TFG (Transitional Federal Government) which was able to move into Mogadishu in 2006 after ARS/UIC (Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia/Union of Islamic Courts) had been ousted (see more in the state-based conflict description).
SSDF has been involved in the intrastate and non-state categories of UCDP organised violence.
