The Somali Democratic Republic (, , ) was the name that the Marxist–Leninist regime of former President of Somalia Major General Mohamed Siad Barre gave to Somalia during its reign, after having seized power in a bloodless 1969 coup d'état. The putsch came a few days after the assassination of Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, the nation's second President, by one of his own bodyguards. Barre's administration would rule Somalia for the following 21 years, until the outbreak of the civil war in 1991.