Soviet backing and Sharmarkee’s murder enabled the 1969 military coup

Evidence

The Soviets supported the Somali military, whose leaders were dismayed by political developments in the country but who also saw the regime as a menace to its own affairs and realized the murder of the president was a god-sent opportunity to act. Tired of the regime’s corruption, the unsuspecting public enthusiastically welcomed the coup. Rather than ushering in a new era of justice as the public had hoped, the first act of the military was to put in detention those in power at the time of the coup and also the most respected leaders of the second republic. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1073

Categorization

• QUESTION: The passage cuts off mid-sentence — which figures were the military’s first detainees, and how did Osman and Hussen fare under the coup?