African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
PoliticsSomalia
Home›African Arguments›Politics›Somalia’s divided army reflects its divided politics

Somalia’s divided army reflects its divided politics

By Liban Obsiye & Liban A. Hussein
June 23, 2021
3636
0
A Somalia National Army parade in 2012. Credit: AU-UN IST PHOTO / STUART PRICE.

The Somali National Army’s recent infighting along clan lines exposed its ongoing fragility. But integration is possible.

A Somalia National Army parade in 2012. Credit: AU-UN IST PHOTO / STUART PRICE.

A Somalia National Army parade in 2012. Credit: AU-UN IST PHOTO / STUART PRICE.

On 25 April, the Somali National Army (SNA) shocked observers both inside and out the country as it split in two. Amid protests in the capital Mogadishu against the extension of the president’s term, gunfire erupted between hundreds of mutinous uniformed soldiers and those loyal to the government.

After years of investment, the army had started to look better trained, better equipped and more cohesive with its new command structure. Yet seemingly in one fell swoop, it fell apart and divided along clan lines.

The trigger for these tensions was the political dispute around elections. A vote had been due in early-February but it stalled due to disagreements on the process between the federal government and the member states of Puntland and Jubbaland. Still facing a deadlock in mid-April, Somalia’s lower house of parliament voted to extend its own mandate and that of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (aka Farmaajo) for two years. The MPs argued that this would give the country sufficient time to organise elections with universal suffrage.

This move was met with outrage both in Somalia, whose Senate rejected the move, and among the country’s international donors. There had already been protests and some clashes in Mogadishu in February, but on 25 April the sound of bazookas and machine gun fire could be heard in much of the capital as soldiers allied to the opposition took up strategic positions. They argued the term extension was illegitimate and claimed soldiers allied to the president had been attacking opposition leaders. The violence, which split by clan, led up to an estimated 100,000 people to flee their homes.

After returning to negotiations, the federal government and federal member states came to an agreement on 27 May. They decided that Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble would oversee indirect elections – similar to Somalia’s 2017 process – within 60 days.

Roble quickly established a committee of ministers, MPs and senators who were tasked with de-escalating tensions and sending SNA units sides back to barracks. Soldiers were told to return to their bases within 48 hours. It was agreed that none would face prosecution or loss of wages so long as they agreed to stay out of politics and resume operating under the army’s command and control structures.

A history of fragility

For now, the cracks in the SNA have been papered over again. But the April clashes highlighted the army’s ongoing fragility. This has been a feature of the national security forces since Somalia’s disastrous war with Ethiopia in 1977. After his defeat, the SNA suffered from an erosion of professionalism, morale, and cohesion as it recruited large numbers of soldiers by clan.

When civil war broke out in 1991, the SNA effective ceased to exist at all. In 2000 and then 2006, the governments of the day tried to re-establish the army but failed, leaving clan militias with a monopoly on violence. Another attempt during President Sheikh Sharif’s term of 2009-2012 partially succeeded. However, it was only really under the internationally-recognised administration of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in 2012 that the SNA’s rebuilding began on a major scale.

This initiative received serious support from external donors keen to combat Islamist militants. To effectively contain al-Shabaab, they insisted that Somalia needed better trained, equipped, financed, and integrated force. In short, the SNA had to become a real national army. Given Somalia’s long history of clan rivalries, troop integration became a key priority.

A challenging integration

Nearly a decade – and huge investments – later, the SNA has made progress. Yet it still lacks a unified and coherent operational philosophy that transcends clan loyalty. Most soldiers are former clan militias who have been given national uniforms but continue to operate within clan structures and territories. The army’s leadership is dominated by members of Somalia’s major clans.

The dangers of this set up became all too clear in April. Yet the SNA has also shown that integration is possible. At least two special army units, Danab and Gorgor, are well-integrated and effective. Trained by the US and Turkey respectively, they both operate based on merit and draw members from all of Somalia’s clans. They adhere to a common operational philosophy and are well equipped, trained and financed. The two units can provide a template for SNA’s wider integration. Operation Badbaado (“Salvation”), which the SNA launched alongside the African Union force AMISOM and international partners in 2019-2020, also showed that coordination is possible with a cohesive Somali army acting as the lead implementer. Some more technical changes also provide hope. For instance, a biometric registration process has meant that some soldiers are now being paid directly into their bank accounts, circumventing clan structures.

There is no lack of political will or lack of consensus on the importance of integration. At the start of his tenure, President Farmaajo personally lived in the Ministry of Defence for a week to oversee reforms including troop integration strategies. But ultimately, Somalia’s national army will never be able to truly succeed until wider societal mistrust is addressed. Many clan rivalries have yet to been meaningfully reconciled. Elite politics continues to be played out along clan lines. And the country’s federal system lacks clear guidelines on the division of national security responsibilities between the federal government and federal member states.

The SNA can proactively make steps to be more effective and integrated. But to a large extent, a national army can only reflect its national politics. As Somalia awaits its delayed and contentious elections, these politics are notably divided, unstable and uncertain.


 

Previous Article

Think African Podcast Ep 4: Why we ...

Next Article

Podcast: From Below, New Youth Politics in ...

Liban Obsiye & Liban A. Hussein

Liban Obsiye is a former Senior Policy Adviser at the Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Liban A. Hussein is a security sector expert working in Somalia.

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • CultureNigeria

    Old Nollywood demonised traditional religions. New cinema says ‘No More’

  • Politics

    May Awakening: South Sudan famine raises memories of 1998 – By Michael Medley

  • Moïse Katumbi (left) with Zeinab Badawi (right) speaking at an Africa All Party Parliamentary event in the UK. Credit: Sheila Ruiz.
    Congo-KinshasaPolitics

    An interview with Moïse Katumbi, DR Congo’s would-be president

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • The unaccountability of Liberia’s polluting miners
  • Africa Elections 2023: All the upcoming votes
  • “Poking the Leopard’s Anus”: Legal Spectacle and Queer Feminist Politics
  • Introducing Parselelo and a new climate focus
  • The ‘Hustler’ Fund: Kenya’s Approach to National Transformation

Editor’s Picks

Editor's PicksEgyptFellowsSociety

“People said it’s haram”: Happy mums show reality of adoption in Egypt

Individuals telling their stories and shifts in popular culture are gradually eroding the stigma around Kafala adoption. When Rasha Mekky reached her mid-20s, she and her husband decided they were ...
  • Bobi Wine and supporters at a rally this September don the red beret . Credit: Bobi Wine.

    To beat or not to beat: Museveni’s big Bobi Wine problem

    By Michael Mutyaba
    October 31, 2019
  • Mahamat Déby, Chairman of the Transitional Military Council and President of Chad on an official visit to Rwanda in March 2022. Credit: Paul Kagame.

    Chad’s transition to nowhere

    By Ine Van Severan & David Kode
    July 20, 2022
  • Cameroon torture: In 2017, some detainees filmed a video from inside Cameroon's notorious prison known as The Bunker in Yaounde.

    Inside Cameroon’s Bunker: “Different guys had different torture techniques”

    By Emmanuel Freudenthal
    May 7, 2019
  • women covid UN Women/Ryan Brown

    The pandemic has set gender equality back. Its legacy must not.

    By Nana Adjoa Hackman
    March 8, 2021

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu