The Hangash (), an acronym standing for Defence Security Agency, was a notorious

secret police image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secre ...

unit of the

Siad Barre Mohammed Siad Barre (, Osmanya script: , ''Muhammad Ziād Barīy''; 6 October 1919 – 2 January 1995) was a Somali military officer, politician, and revolutionary who served as the third president of Somalia from 21 October 1969 to 26 Janu ...

regime In politics, a regime (also spelled régime) is a system of government that determines access to public office, and the extent of power held by officials. The two broad categories of regimes are democratic and autocratic. A key similarity acros ...

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

until his overthrow in 1991.

Overview

Created in the aftermath of the 1978 coup attempt, the official purpose of the Hangash was to maintain surveillance over the

Somali Armed Forces The Somali Armed Forces are the military forces of the Federal Republic of Somalia. Headed by the president as commander-in-chief, they are constitutionally mandated to ensure the nation's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. I ...

and the more widely known National Security Service (NSS). As the Barré government's crackdown on political activity became more severe, however, the Hangash acquired direct powers in civilian matters, overlapping with those of NSS. According to a 1993 Country Study published by the U.S. Library of Congress, " entually, the Hangash, which operated without legal authority, became more feared than the NSS". When the NSS was formally dissolved in 1990, many of its activities were subsumed by the Hangash and other institutions comprising the security apparatus of the Barré regime, such as the Mobile Military Court (MMC), the Regional Security Council (RSC), and the

Victory Pioneers The Victory Pioneers () were a neighborhood-level secret police unit active in the closing years of the Siad Barre regime in Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The ...

References

Defunct intelligence agencies Somali intelligence agencies Secret police Military history of Somalia Communism in Somalia Government agencies disestablished in 1991 1991 disestablishments in Somalia {{somalia-stub