| Abdalla Mohamed Fadil | |
| Native Name: | Cabdalla Maxamed Fadhil عبد الله محمد فاضل |
| Death Date: | January 1991 |
| Allegiance: | Somalia |
| Branch: | Somali National Army |
| Serviceyears: | 1950s–1990s |
| Rank: | 18px Major General |
| Battles: | Ogaden War |
Abdullah Mohamed Fadil (Somali: Cabdallah Maxamed Faadil, Arabic: عبد الله محمد فاضل; died January 1991), also known as Abdalla Mohamed Fadil,[1] was a prominent Somali military figure.
Fadil was the son of a Yemeni musketeer from Taiz governorate with the Sultanate of Hobyo and a Majeerteen mother of the Nuh Jabrail family. Both parents served under Sultan Ali Yusuf Kenadid, heir to Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid.[2]
Fadil was the first Joint Chiefs of Staff and Commander of the Somali Armed Forces (SAF), and was a senior member of the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC). A Major General in the military,[3] he would also hold number of portfolios as a Minister, including as the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Minister of Health, Minister of Ports and Marine Transport, during the Siad Barre administration.[4]
In the 1970s Abdullah Mohamed Fadil and Muhammad Ali Samatar advised President Barre to select top Frunze graduates to lead the campaign in Ogaden against Ethiopia to liberate Somali territories and restore the greater Somalia. This was part of a broader effort to unite all of the Somali-inhabited territories in the Horn region into a Greater Somalia (Soomaaliweyn).[5]
A distinguished graduate of the M. V. Frunze Military Academy General Fadil co-managed with General Samantar Somalia's military strategy. They selected the top military leaders from Frunze known as "Frunzites" preferring the Frunzites over the Italian trained Modena graduates . Fadil and Samnatar trusted their college mates, the top graduates of Frunze Military Academy in Moscow (Военнаяакадемия им М. В. Фрунзе), an elite Soviet institution reserved for the most qualified officers of the Warsaw Pact armies and their allies to lead the Ogaden Campaign. Fadil and Samantar selected the following:[6]
Col. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed commanded SNA in Negellie Front.
Col. Abdullahi Ahmed Irro commanded SNA in the Godey Front.
Col. Ali Hussein commanded SNA in Qabri Dahare Front. (Later chosen to support Harar campaign)
Col. Farah Handulle commanded SNA in the Warder Front.
General Yussuf Salhan Jigjiga Front
General Mohamed Nur Galaal assisted by Col. Mohamud Sh. Abdullahi Geelqaad commanded Dirir-Dewa. The SNA retreated from Dirir-Dewa. (Galaal became Minister of Public Works and Leading member of the ruling Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party)
Col. Ali Isamil and Col. Abdulrahman Aare Degeh-Bur Front. (Later chosen to reinforce the Harar campaign)
Top Somali officials, Fadil, Samantar, among others were targeted for clan reasons as documented by Sica and Kapteijns. Following the outbreak of the civil war in 1991 and the collapse of the Barre regime, Mario Sica, then Italian ambassador to Mogadishu, documented that although the United Somali Congress (USC) professed that it was fighting against the Barre regime as a whole and not engaged in a clan-based struggle.[7] [2]