By Abdirizak Yusuf Ismail
September 26, 2023
Somalia National Army (SNA) was established on April 12, 1960, eighty days before the Somalia independence. Between the years of 1960-1986 the army widened and grew fast to become among the strongest military in Africa. Somalia used to be the first top ten of Africa’s military force because they were prepared individually to enter into harm’s way and to perform physically and mentally demanding tasks at the highest possible level of proficiency. Even the military motivation and ethics was very high. Never been convinced by clan involvement or any other confraternity grouping and never been engaged in partisan political activities and mainly to expect the code of conduct which is prohibiting all military personnel to conjecture nation’s political activities by any means. The military was taught and instructed in good discipline with excellent tendency to comply with superiors orders and was trained from their first day to obey orders nearly unquestioningly.
Because of the civil war 1991 Somali national forces were dissolved inconceivable and completely faced destruction up until their exit. As a result of the military personnel disunion all the army forces equipment progressed directly into the hands of civilians. Unexpectedly the majority of the soldiers divided into clan militias to defend their clans because of the war between organised clan affiliated groups. Over a period of 16 years, Somalia had failed more than ten times in forming a national army force. Those attempts at least proved the requirements neither are more uncertainty to deliver if nor agreed unanimously all the stakeholders. Reforming military force in a nation that experienced civil war is difficult and industriously in a short time period, because of the roots of previous conflicts. In addition Somalia’s civil war deserted deep wounds within the clans which required full reconciliation.
Typical recruitment requires:-
The essential requirement of reforming military personnel is crucial responsibilities for the Federal government as well as Federal member states. Keeping the balance is the main obligation to ensure in maintaining reasonable personnel that fits mentally, physically and emotionally. It also requires an impartial and unbiased recruitment on identifying and selecting future national army forces based on their capability and competencies, without clan background or favouritism into consideration. A kind of impartial recruiters never allow unconscious biases to affect the recruitment which can be assessed in a fair way. To manage transparency which is important for the recruiters to act and craves good years of experience working with military recruitment methods and potential to provide military knowledge. In that instance to share clearly the strategic plan and the processing steps for recruitment as well as the path to approach every procedure.
Building a quality army is important for the security of the country, dignity and honouring the nation’s standard of acceptable relations and dealing with neighbouring states. While the origin establishments of army forces were detached, it required heedful to constitute a new mixed forces combined with the Federal states. In addition to the civil war, Somalia has been involved the past 16 years in the war of terrorism militants. The unacquainted war with terrorism militants is different from the previous war that the country has gone through before. Terrorism is the worst enemy to fight around the world. Unfortunately when they entered the country, they simply convinced many Somalis ideologically persuaded that they defend Islam religion.
Fighting against terrorism, which is still on-going, is amalgamated by Somali National Forces and foreign troops. Inessential for foreign forces to have within or as part of helping Somalia forces if the country’s army is built as it should be or as it was before. The unemployment rate of Somalia is one of the highest in the world, approximately 70% of Somalia population are youth and for that opportunity if we construct or direct fittingly in the army forces; doubtlessly it would accommodate way better than foreign forces and at the same time it generates employment to the most relevant.
Available opportunities:-
While we can obtain enough youth who are suitable to join the army, it’s a misfortune to bring foreigners instead. Previous governments endeavoured many times to reform Somali National Forces and, in fact recruited over twenty thousand soldiers but regretfully didn’t act in accordance with requirement regulations which is accessible to the lack of engagement for all relevant stakeholders. The necessity when establishing a country’s soldiers like Somalia is to possess fairness and equitableness in the sense of all clan members or all federal member states.
Eventually; to resume and reform Somalia’s army forces is a crucial and significant duty for the government and all citizens to carry out. It is appropriate to go back to the mistakes made regarding the recruitment of the army, and it is important to combine together all trained armies and avoid them from looking like clan militias. In the same way, the federal government and federal member states must come together and provide an acceptable forum in order to hammer out the integration of the army. The previously trained army forces also combined and can be admissible to be transferred anywhere in the regions of Somalia. Thus, it may be put forward to a better foundation for achieving reasonable army personnel who believed his fellow soldier and companion brother in battle. It’s undeniable that the current army forces did a glorious task in defending the country from the ruthless enemy (terrorists) and we’re grateful for their services.
Noteworthy; since the war against Al-shabaab broke out in Somalia, the brave Somali army forces have accomplished many tangible successes and liberated from Al-shabaab militants bounteous territories. Meanwhile the local clan militias (Macawisley) have shown an outstanding solidarity for fighting against AS and unconditional stand by the Somali army forces. Both SNF & Macawisley have shown their ability and incredible courage and together liberated more than 300 km of territory. With collaboration they enabled their operations to run extraordinary missions, and made the perfect team feel valued and useful in their role. Notably; we are fully grateful to the AMISOM/ATMIS forces who have bravely stood by the government forces for a long time. During those years they showed magnificent efforts and were fearless to defend the merciless enemy of AS.
The military management:-
The ideal reform for a national integrated army is to explain the relationships of the force management systems and processes that build fielded force readiness while investing in future force readiness. To recognize how Force development translates requirements across training, materiel, personnel, facilities and policy domains into a wide range structure. It is also necessary to examine how the army uses three distinct subsystems, production, combat, and integration to produce versatile capabilities for all federal members and mainly to distinguish Army components which are uniquely optimized to sustain and expand capabilities to execute the range of military operations. Momentousness to identify how the Army measures force readiness and explore the sequential phases of the planning, programming, and execution process to align strategy with resources within timelines. Inspect and regulate the unification of the future national force modernization initiative in which the joint capabilities integration and development system and defence acquisition scheme at national army level.
Finally to prepare national army well aware about the four components of readiness: manning, training, modernized equipment, and to reform like the previous national army before the civil war that can examine the army’s obligation to keep the Somalia people informed, to foster confidence in the army and its readiness to conduct multi-domain operations throughout the country. Hopefully, Somalia will once again obtain an army force with full psychological effects of military training that changes the personality, emotional ability and social function of the individual.
