The Supreme Revolutionary Council military junta under Barre reconstituted Somalia as a one-party Marxist–Leninist communist state, renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic and adopted scientific socialism.

Barre's early rule was characterised by attempts at widespread modernization, nationalization of banks and industry, promotion of cooperative farms, a new writing system for the Somali language, and anti-tribalism.

Opposition grew in the 1980s due to his increasingly dictatorial rule, growth of tribal politics, abuses of the National Security Service including the Isaaq genocide, and the sharp decline of Somalia's economy.

Barre's father and brother died when he was ten years old as a result of a raid by the Habr Yunis in the early 20th century, and this event is posited by some scholars to have deeply affected him.

Author Mohamed Diiriye in his book Culture and Customs of Somalia, writes: Many who knew Barre from his boyhood and during his stint in the colonial police under the Italians were not that surprised.

The group presented a petition to the "Four Powers" Investigation Commission in order to allow that the administration of the United Nations Trust Territory could be entrusted for thirty years to Italy.

In 1941, Mohammed, aged twenty, joined the police force which was then under the authority of the British military, who occupied it since the initiation of World War II hostilities.

[18] In 1952, he and several of his colleagues, including Hussein Kulmiye Afrah, Liiq-Liiqato, Shegow and Daud Abdulle, attended military academy in Italy where he chiefly studied politics and administration.

During the colonial administration, the Somali police force was the first institution be Somalised and full command was handed over to the indigenous officers several years prior to independence.

This awareness gained strength by the evident corruption perpetrated by the political class which increased their conviction that they were the only healthy and functioning force in the young Republic.

[citation needed] The brief border war against Ethiopia in 1964 was fought under conditions of grave unpreparedness in where the army was cut off from its own lines whilst the government became more and more corrupt, which in turn provided food for resentment and hostility towards the regime that was already incapable as well as impotent and dishonest.

During his interview, he outlined his dissatisfaction with the current regime shared by the local populace and provided reasons for a new political vision, which had the clear plan of a profound change of course in Somalia that would be automatically linked with the people and their needs.

Questioned whether the Armed Forces were ready for a coup d'état, General Siad remarked that the Somali Army considered itself exclusively "In the service of the people, not only for the defense of the frontiers, but to help its political, economic and social progress."

[citation needed] On 15 October 1969, President Abdirashid Shermake was assassinated in Las Anod by a policeman whilst touring a drought stricken area of northern Somalia.

It was suggested that Haji Muse Bogor, a Mogadishu businessman and close relative of the assassinated president, be elected, methodology that opposed the very constitution of the newly founded state.

In the early hours of 21 October 1969, when the members of the parliament finally decided to present the presidency to the highest bidder, Haji Muse Bogor, military troops aided by armored cars in the major cities of Somalia to occupy key positions.

Before the crack of dawn, all the members of parliament, several politicians linked to tribal chiefs or foreign interests were arrested by the police, headed by General Jama Ali Korshel, backed the takeover and somehow played a subordinate role in the coup.

[citation needed] Barre (June 1970) re-affirmed the sentiment of the masses when he described the very model of the post-independence regimes were based upon "the long period during which there have been over a hundred parties in Somalia and a parliament of not even two hundred members, served solely to demonstrate in the most convincing of manner that the models of colonial countries transferred to Africa serve only the new-colonial purposes of said countries, and not certainly to develop forms of democracy in keeping with African realities."

[21] Barre assumed the position of president of Somalia, styled the "Victorious Leader" (Guulwade), and fostered the growth of a personality cult with portraits of him in the company of Marx and Lenin lining the streets on public occasions.

[23] In July 1976, Barre's SRC disbanded itself and established in its place the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP), a one-party government based on scientific socialism and Islamic tenets.

[citation needed] Control of Somalia was of great interest to both the Soviet Union and the United States due to the country's strategic location at the mouth of the Red Sea.

[30] The United States stepped in and until 1989, was a strong supporter of the Barre government for whom it provided approximately US$100 million per year in economic and military aid,[31] meeting in 1982 with Ronald Reagan to announce the new relationship between the US and Somalia.

[3][35] In return, Barre hoped that Mengistu would disarm Somali National Movement rebels active on the Ethiopian side of the border; however did this not materialise since the SNM relocated to Northern Somalia in response to this agreement.

[citation needed] Another public project initiated by the government was the Shalanbood Sanddune Stoppage: from 1971 onwards, a massive tree-planting campaign on a nationwide scale was introduced by Barre's administration to halt the advance of thousands of acres of wind-driven sand dunes that threatened to engulf towns, roads, and farmland.

[38] By 1978, manufactured goods exports were almost non-existent, and with the lost support of the Soviet Union the Barre government signed a structural adjustment agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the early 1980s.

[citation needed] In May 1986, President Barre suffered serious injuries in a life-threatening automobile collision near Mogadishu, when the car that was transporting him smashed into the back of a bus during a heavy rainstorm.

Although Barre managed to recover enough to present himself as the sole presidential candidate for re-election over a term of seven years on 23 December 1986, his poor health and advanced age led to speculation about who would succeed him in power.

Systematic human rights abuses against the dominant Isaaq clan in the north was described in the report as "state sponsored terrorism" "both the urban population and nomads living in the countryside [were] subjected to summary killings, arbitrary arrest, detention in squalid conditions, torture, rape, crippling constraints on freedom of movement and expression and a pattern of psychological intimidation.

The clampdown included bombing of cities, with the northwestern administrative center of Hargeisa, a Somali National Movement (SNM) stronghold, among the targeted areas in 1988.

[52] After fallout from the unsuccessful Ogaden campaign, Barre's administration began arresting government and military officials under suspicion of participation in the 1978 coup d'état attempt.