Colonel Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud (Somali: Xassan Maxamed Nuur Shaati-Gaduud, Arabic: حسن محمد نور شاتيغادود) is a Somali faction leader, and chairman of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), which sought to establish the autonomous state of Southwestern Somalia. Recently, he is said to have played a role in the capture of Mogadishu by Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government forces in December 2006. Shatigadud is from the Harin clan, one of the larger subclans of the Digil and Mirifle (Rahanweyn). He speaks Somali (Maay & Mahatiri), Arabic, Italian,Rasia, and English.
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Shatigadud ("red shirt") served as a colonel in the much-feared National Security Service and he was one of the most greatest (NSS)in siad barre regime security (NSS) under the rule of Siad Barre.[1]
During the Somali Civil War, Shatigadud was the leader of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), which was founded in September 1995 to oppose the invasion of the Bay and Bakool regions by Mohamed Farah Aideed's Somali National Alliance (SNA). The RRA supported, for a time, the prospects of forming a new Transitional National Government (TNG) under President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan.
On April 1, 2002, he became the first President of the ostensibly autonomous self-proclaimed state in Somalia.[2][3] The organization of the autonomous state was thought to be a move to show the disaffection of the RRA with the nascent Mogadishu-based Transitional National Government (TNG) and an act to counter the influence of the Somalia Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) in the same regions.[3] However, internal disputes erupted between Shatigadud, who wished to support the new Somalia Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) and his two deputies, Sheikh Aden Madobe and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade, who wished to continue to support the TNG. The conflict resulted in many deaths and calls for Shatigadud to step down as President.[4] Habsade continued to meet with TNG leaders ostensibly with the hope of being part of the nascent national government.[5] The warring leaders of the RRA were eventually reconciled and, though conflicts periodically erupted thereafter, all joined the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) at its formation.
Shatigadud has served since November 2004 as a Member of Parliament of the 275-seat Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP).[6] and since January 2005 as Minister of Finance for the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).[7][8]
Shatigadud was appointed Minister of National Security in the government of Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein on December 2, 2007. However, he along with three other ministers from the Rahanweyn clan resigned on December 3, saying that the Rahanweyn had not been given a fair share of posts in Hussein's government.[9]