Somali Warlord Aidid Ousted as Faction Head

Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid, who humiliated U.S. forces in Mogadishu, has been ousted as chairman of his faction by his former right-hand man, who wants the United Nations and aid agencies to return to help rebuild the nation, faction members said Monday.

A vote against the 60-year-old Aidid was taken Sunday at a congress in Mogadishu of the United Somali Congress-Somali National Alliance called by his opponents within the group.

Aidid was replaced by former ally and financier Osman Hassan Ali Atto, who attacked Aidid for frustrating efforts to rebuild Somalia and urged the United Nations and aid agencies to return and help the broken nation in the Horn of Africa.

“We will give them a guarantee of security,” Osman Atto told the 2,000-member congress in a Mogadishu district known as Bosnia. There was no immediate comment from U.N. officials.

Osman Atto said Aidid’s mandate as chairman expired more than a year ago. But Aidid still has significant support among his Habre Gedir clan, split between him and his challenger.

Two years ago, Aidid dogged the United Nations as he defied U.N. forces trying to restore order in anarchic Somalia and evaded a costly hunt by U.S.-led troops trying to arrest him.

His supporters killed dozens of peacekeepers, including 18 elite U.S. troops in an October, 1993, attack, and the U.N. manhunt boosted his standing among Somalis, entrenching him as the most powerful warlord from his base in southern Mogadishu.

Sunday’s congress followed a three-week Central Committee meeting by the United Somali Congress-Somali National Alliance, sponsored by Osman Atto, who broke with Aidid before the evacuation of the last U.N. troops from Somalia in March.

Aidid has refused to recognize the congress, calling it “foreign-manipulated,” but has stopped short of direct conflict with Osman Atto’s forces, which most Somalis believe have greater firepower.