Somali National Army
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Military of Somalia
Military manpower
Military age	Officially 18 years of age
Availability	males age 18-49: 1,787,727 (2005)
Fit for military service	males age 18-49: 1,022,360 (2005)
Reaching military age annually	males: n/a
Active troops	Est. 10,000 militia
Military expenditures
Dollar figure	$43.28 million (2005 extrapolation)
Percent of GDP	0.9% (2005)

The Somali National Army was, up until 1991, made up of the army, navy, air force, and air defense command. The Somali Government's demise led to the de facto dissolution of the national armed forces. Efforts by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to reestablish a regular armed force under the TFG Ministry of Defense have made little progress so far.

Various groups and factions control militias ranging in strength from hundreds to thousands. These militias are in general poorly trained and lightly armed, although some groups possess limited inventories of older armored vehicles and other heavy weapons and small arms are prevalent throughout Somalia. The Somaliland and Puntland regional governments maintain their own security and police forces.

An agreement between the TFG and the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) to establish a national military was reportedly reached "in principle" on September 5, 2006, but in practice, political disagreements scuttled talks scheduled for October 30 in Khartoum, Sudan.^[1][2] After the defeat of the ICU in December 2006–January 2007, an agreement was reached between the warlords and the government for the militias to be disarmed, and for former militia members to apply to join the army.

History

Historically, Somali society accorded prestige to the warrior (waranle) and rewarded military prowess. Except for a man of religion (wadaad), and they were few in number, all Somali males were considered potential warriors. Somalia have quite an effective military force, compared to other countries in their area.

In Italian Somaliland, eight "Arab-Somali" infantry battalions and several irregular units of Italian officered "dubats" were raised. These units served as frontier guards and tribal police. There were also Somali artillery and zaptie (carabinieri) units forming part of the Italian Royal Corps of Colonial Troops from 1889 to 1941.

In 1914, the Somaliland Camel Corps was raised in British Somaliland and saw service before, during, and after the Italian invasion of the British protectorate during World War II.

At independence in 1960, Somalia possessed a small and lightly equipped army with officers trained in Britain, Egypt, and Italy. After a military coup in 1961 this force was expanded and modernised with the assistance of Russian and Cuban advisors.

The Somali National Army (SMA) was battle-tested in 1964 when the conflict with Ethiopia over the Somali-inhabited Ogaden erupted into warfare. On 16 June 1963, Somali guerrillas started an insurgency at Hodayo, in eastern Ethiopia, a watering place north of Werder, after Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie rejected their demand for self-government in the Ogaden. The Somali government initially refused to support the guerrilla forces, which eventually numbered about 3,000. However, in January 1964, after Ethiopia sent reinforcements to the Ogaden, Somali forces launched ground and air attacks across the Ethiopian border and started providing assistance to the guerrillas. The EAF responded with punitive strikes across its southwestern frontier against Feerfeer, northeaast of Beledweyne, and Galcaio. On 6 March 1964, Somalia and Ethiopia agreed to a cease-fire; at the end of the month, the two sides signed an accord in Khartoum, Sudan, agreeing to withdraw their troops from the border, cease hostile propaganda, and start peace negotiations. Somalia also terminated its support of the guerrillas

Somali National Army (SNA) prior to 1991

The army was organised into 12 divisions which comprise of 4 tank brigades, 45 mechanized and infantry brigades, 4 commando brigades, surface-to-air missile brigade, 3 artillery brigades, 30 field battalions, and an air defense battalion.

The serviceability of the equipment is poor and status is unknown.

• Centurion main battle tanks
• M47 Patton main battle tanks
• T-54/T-55 main battle tanks
• T-34 medium tanks
• M41 Walker Bulldog light tanks
• Panhard AML-90 armoured cars
• BRDM-2 reconnaissance vehicles
• BTR-50 tracked armored personnel carriers
• BTR-40, BTR-60 and BTR-152 wheeled armored personnel carriers
• Fiat 6614/6616 armored personnel carriers
• BMR-600 wheeled APC
• BGM-71 TOW anti-tank guided missiles
• M198 155 mm towed howitzers

Air Defense Forces

The Air Defense Forces consisted of 7 brigades.

The serviceability of the equipment is poor and status is unknown.

• SA-3 Goa surface-to-air missiles (not operational)
• SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles (not operational)
• Strela 2 portable surface-to-air missiles (operational status unknown)
• P-12
• P-15 Termit - coastal defense surface to surface missiles
• P-30
• P-35

Air Force

Main article: Somali Air Corps

The „Somali Air Corps“ (SAC) - was originally established with Italian aid, in the early 1960s. Emerging from the Italian "Corpo di Sicurezza della Somalia" while the country was under Italian & British administration, between 1950 and 1960. The most important pieces of its original equipment were eight North American F-51D Mustangs, Douglas C-47s and MiG 23s, which remained in service until 1968. It operated most of its aircraft from bases near Mogadishu and Hargeysa and Calciao. Its mission was to support armed forces during wartime. In the Spring of 1977 Ethiopia was invaded to reclaim the Somali populated Ogaden also called West-Somalia. The SAC sometimes used Somali Airlines aircraft to ferry troops and supplies to war zones.

The Somali Air Force has not been operational since 1991 and the collapse of the Somali government.

Navy

As of 1991, the navy was not operational. Prior to that, the Somali navy consisted of:

• Osa-II missile-armed fast attack craft (2)
• Mol PFT torpedo-armed fast attack craft (4)
• Polnocny class landing ship

Somali Police Force

Main article: Somali Police Force

In 1960 the British Somaliland Scouts joined with the Police Corps of Somalia to form a new Somali Police Force, which consisted of about 3,700 men. The authorities also organized approximately 1,000 of the force as the Darawishta Poliska, a mobile group used to keep peace between warring clans in the interior. Since then, the government has considered the SPF a part of the armed forces. It was not a branch of the SNA, however, and did not operate under the army's command structure. Until abolished in 1976, the Ministry of Interior oversaw the force's national commandant and his central command. After that date, the SPF came under the control of the presidential adviser on security affairs.

Military Expenditures

Military spending in Somalia is difficult to calculate. Officially, there is a UN ban on weapon sales to the nation. However, weapons possession and open sale of AK-47s, is prevalent in Somalia.^[3] Besides the formal military of the Transitional Federal Government, there are armed forces of autonomous provinces, such as Puntland, private militias of warlords and clans, and personal stockpiles of arms. Open arms bazaars, such as in the Bakaara Market, sell small arms and light weapons, antiaircraft guns, rockets and missiles. Weapons trafficking to Somalia is illegal and done on the black market.^[4][5]

The following figures are CIA estimates of the economy and arms market in Somalia:

• GDP: $4.809 billion (2005 est.)^[6]
• Percent of GDP spent on military: 0.9% (2005 est.)^[6]
• Estimated expenditures: $43.28 million (gross calculation based on above figures)

Transitional National Government (TNG) Army (2000–2004)

Further information: Transitional National Government

The predecessor to the TFG was the Transitional National Government (TNG), which was national only in name. It had little control of the country, but had the recognition of the UN and international powers. It was militarily opposed by many factions in the Somali Civil War, notably the rival Somalia Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC).

• Commander: General Ismail Qasim Naji, appointed in January 2002.^[7][8]
• Strength: The TNG army in March 2002 numbered 2,010 men and 90 women.^[9]

Transitional Federal Government (TFG) Army

TFG Ministry of Defense

Main article: TFG Ministry of Defense

Due to the Somali Civil War there is presently no single recognized national army of Somalia. The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has its own forces reporting directly to the TFG Ministry of Defense.

There are also TFG-allied forces reporting to the semi-autonomous governments of Puntland, Southwestern Somalia, Jubaland (called the Juba Valley Alliance - JVA), and Galmudug, plus confederated tribes and independent warlords.

• The Islamic Courts Union (ICU) had competing forces composed of different levels of professional soldiers, allied tribal militias, warlords, and mujahedeen.

• The de facto independent state of Somaliland also maintains its own army.

There is little formal order of the present TFG army. No strict Order of Battle has emerged. Units are mostly based on tribal militia or are the personal followers of warlords. Typical discussions of brigades, regiments and other formal structure are meaningless. Discipline is low, as forces join, defect, and abandon fighting on a common basis.^[10][11] However, a cadre of more professional soldiers has emerged, trained by Ethiopian advisors.^[12]

Military Commanders of the TFG

• General Abdulahi Ali Omar - Army chief-of-staff for the TFG appointed February 10, 2007^[13]
• General Ismail Qasim Naji - Army chief-of-staff for the TFG appointed in April 2005^[14] and replaced February 10, 2007 by Abdulahi Ali Omar^[13]; formerly military chief of the TNG 2002–2004^[7][8]; went on to become Ambassador to Oman
• Colonel Barre Adan Shire Hiiraale - Minister of Defense, former Colonel (commander) of the Juba Valley Alliance (see Rise of the Islamic Courts Union (2006) and Battle of Baidoa)
• General Cali Mohammad Hassan Looyaan - National Police Commander, and military commander of the autonomous state of Gedo Armed Forces
• Colonel Abdulahi Sheik Fara-Tag - was named as the commander of 2nd Brigade^[15], the TFG forces defending Bardhere from attack.^[16]
• Colonel Muktar Hussein Afrah - Commander of TFG forces in Beledweyne
• Colonel Aden Mahamud Ibrahim - Chief Commander of 1st Army Division, TFG forces
• Colonel Said "Dhere" Mohamed Hirsi - Led taking of Burkhaba from the ICU in October 2006 (see Battle of Baidoa)^[17]
• Ibrahim Batari - involved in fighting around Iidale, December 2006 (see Battle of Baidoa)^[18]
• Colonel Abdirisak Afgadud (alternately spelled Abdulrasaq Afgebub) - cited as a TFG military divisional commander, who claimed prematurely the TFG had prevailed at the Battle of Ras Kamboni: "Our forces accompanied by our Ethiopian friends have totally cracked down on the remnants of the Islamists in the border area."^[19][20]

Estimated Militia Strengths

Force estimates from 2004.^[21] Yet allegiances change rapidly in Somalia, and many warlords lost their power base after the Second Battle of Mogadishu and other actions during the Somali Civil War. Militias in Somalia have been known to recruit child soldiers.^[22]

New Plans for the Somali Army

Before the recent actions in the Somali Civil War, Somalia's new government had plans for an army of 30,000 men, with the first 6,000 to be funded and trained by Italian advisors, using a cadre training method: "One hundred and twenty foreign trainers will train 500 ex-Somalia Army soldiers, who will in their turn train the 6,000 men."^[21]

New official international plans for Somali army training are those endorsed through the December 6, 2006 United Nations Security Council-sanctioned mission known as IGASOM.^[27] This mission has the endorsement of the African Union, and the union of Horn of Africa nations known as IGAD. However, to date no IGASOM-sanctioned troops have arrived in Somalia to assist the TFG.

Beyond the scope of the UN provisions, Ethiopia admitted it provided military advisors to the nascent TFG even before the outbreak of the war on December 20, 2006, contraverting the Security Council's emphasis that according to the "IGAD Deployment Plan that those States that border Somalia would not deploy troops in Somalia." This limits the IGASOM mission eligibility to the nations of Uganda, Eritrea, and Sudan, since Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti (through the internationally unrecognized state of Somaliland) all border Somalia.

Even as the UNSC debated the motion to allow a lifting of the arms and training embargo on Somalia, Ethiopia publicly admitted its advisors were in Somalia, such as in this statement quoted at the time: "Ethiopia admitted it only has several hundred military advisors and trainers in Somalia to protect the impotent Somali government based in Baidoa, 250 km southwest of the capital."^[28]

Meanwhile, the ICU army was funded from a variety of alleged unofficial sources.

With the recent de facto state of affairs in Somalia, the future is unclear regarding international support and funding of the Somali military.

Notes

References

• Library of Congress Somalia Country Study 1992
• Somalia, 1980-1996 ACIG
• Somalia: Foreign Military Assistance SomaliNet
• "Weapons at War", a World Policy Institute Issue Brief by William D. Hartung, , May 1995, chapter III: Strengthening Potential Adversaries (12th paragraph), Somalia.

This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.