SUMMARY
The Sa’ad sub-clan of the Habar Gidir clan is a third tier of the Hawiye clan of Somalia. The Hawiye is one of Somalia’s largest clan families representing an estimated 25% of the country’s total population. Members of the clan family mainly reside in central and southern parts of Somalia (Mudug and the Benadir regions), but large numbers can also be found in neighboring countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia. The Hawiye played a major role in the ousting of former president Siad Barre, as the main rebel group that eventually succeeded in overthrowing him, USC (United Somali Congress), was primarily based among this clan. The Hawiye clan is relatively powerful in economic terms due to a large community in Mogadishu. The rural based Hawiye are commonly also involved in lucrative trade, but are also pastoralist. Many of the clans and sub-clans of the Hawiye clan family have remained influential in Somalia. The Hawiye clan is divided into several sub-clans, such as the powerful Habar Gidir (sometimes Habar Gedir). The Habar Gidir clan is subsequently divided into even smaller sub-clans, such as the Sa’ad (sometimes Sacad). This sub-clan, like many others in Somalia, has constructed its own militia and engaged in non-state conflicts with rivalling non-state actors in the chaotic environment that followed on Siad Barre’s fall from power in 1991. The prevailing context of political rivalries in Somalia is mainly based on identification along clan lines.
The Sa’ad clan inhabits the majority of the central Mudug region of Somalia, but are also spread out in other regions and in the capital, Mogadishu. Just as the wider Hawiye clan members of the Sa’ad sub-clan have played prominent roles in Somali history, with the USC (United Somali Congress) leader Mohammed Farah Aidid being a member of the clan. The Sa’ad sub-clan is, however, more firmly linked to another Somali faction, the SNA (Somali National Alliance), which Aidid formed after a split in the USC. The Sa’ad sub-clan has been one of the dominant parts of the powerful Habar Gidir clan through most of the 1990s and 2000s.
In the late 2000s and early 2010s there was a growing number of regional administrations created in Somalia, many of them with clan links. One such administration has been linked to the Saad subclan, namely the Galmudug administration. The administration lies in the southern parts of Mudug and the northern parts of Galguduud in central Somalia.
The Sa’ad sub-clan of Habar Gidir clan (Hawiye) has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.
