in 1969, the president of somalia was killed by a man whose clan had been hurt by his policies, and general mohammed siad barre took over the country. siad barre built a huge army with help from the soviet union and when ethiopia fell for the fourth time (this time because of a communist takeover) he invaded. the soviet union decided that ethiopia was more important than somalia and double-crossed siad barre, supplying huge amounts of weapons to ethiopia. other countries like cuba and israel also sent help to ethiopia, so in the end siad barre lost the war.