The Somali Democratic Republic (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Dimuqraadiya Soomaaliyeed; Arabic: الجمهورية الديمقراطية الصومالية, al-Jumhūrīyah ad-Dīmuqrāṭīyah aṣ-Ṣūmālīyah; Italian: Repubblica Democratica Somala) was the name that the socialist military government gave to Somalia under President Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, after seizing power in a coup d'état on 21 October 1969. The coup came a few days after a bodyguard assassinated Abdirashid Shermarke, the nation's second President. Barre's administration ruled Somalia for the next 21 years until Somalia collapsed into civil war in 1991.