Warsangali Sultanate - Northern Somali Sultanates

Northern Somali Sultanates

In 1896, a challenge of leadership emerged between a father and son. The powerful Gerad Ali Shire's authority was dwindling and young Mohamoud Ali Shire, with the tacit support of the Isse Garad (Bohogayslabe) sub-clan of the Warsangali Darod, sought to undermine the power of his father. Before then, internal conflict amongst the Warsangali sub-clans had surfaced and had had an effect on Sultan Mohamoud Ali Shire and his ascension to power. The disarray caused by the young Mohamoud amongst the Warsangali was finally settled by the proposal that Mohamoud fils should become Sultan, while his father could remain Gerad. The Bihidor sub-clan of the Warsangali, however, withdrew their support for the Sultan, deeming him an upstart and an untested authority figure. They subsequently forged an alliance with the Somali religious and nationalist leader Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's Dervish forces in an attempt to defeat Britain and Ethiopia, two powers that were then also vying for control of the Somali Peninsula. In his paper The 'Mad Mullah' and Northern Somalia, the historian Robert L. Hess touches upon this alliance, writing that "in attempt to break out of Obbian-Mijertein circle, the Mullah sought closer alliances with the Bihidor Warsangali of British Somaliland and Bah Geri of Ethiopia."

Following an unexpected onslaught, the Sultan ordered his army to retreat from its main military posts in Erigavo, a town which at the time served as a reserve well for the Sultan's horses and as a base for his army. Hassan's alliance with the Bihidor clan was instrumental in extending the Dervish sphere of influence and in expanding his Dervish State's hegemony. On March 3, 1905, Italy came close to signing a treaty with Hassan at Illig, offering him the Nugaal territory as a protectorate. Hassan, however, rejected the offer and his Dervish army continued its anti-imperial resistance struggle. In its early proposal, both the Majeerteen and Warsangali Sultanates also opposed the treaty, as they foresaw potential threats to their own local authority from its hypothetical implementation. These Sultanates thus collaborated to defeat the Dervish forces:

The first success in this Anglo-Italian cooperation came in December 1910. In that month, the British Warsangali and the Italian Mijertain peacefully resolved all their outstanding disputes and, convening in Bander Kasim, agreed to act jointly in combating Sayyid Muhammed Abdullah and his Dervishes..The Mijertain--Warsangali Accord led to a common offensive against the Mullah, whose forces were cut off from arms and munitions smuggled in from the coast. (Hess, 427) In 1920, the Dervishes unexpectedly captured Badhan and besieged Las Khorey. The British Governor at Aden soon sent RAF biplanes to contain the advance of the Dervish army into the Warsangali country. Though the air strikes that bombarded Badhan, Jidali and Talex never did considerable harm to the Dervishes, the Dervishes were still powerful but disorganized and dispersed into unknown areas. Finally, the forces of Warsangali and Dervishes met at Jidali and this was in fact the final decimation of the Dervish movement.

The Mijertein Somalis, who in June succeeded launching counter-attack with the aid of their Warsangali allies..Mullah and his followers were driven out of Italian Somaliland into British Somaliland, where they occupied Buhotleh with great cruelty and oppressed the Dolbahante who had shifted their allegiance back to British Somaliland.

As a result, the Dervishes abandoned the Nugaal territory and retreated into the Hawd.