YAMAMOTO: SOMALIA NEEDS AN INCLUSIVE NATIONAL ARMY

[Deeq A.]

Mogadishu (PP News Desk )  —  The United States Ambassador to Somalia Donald Yamamoto has urged political stakeholders  “to diversify its armed forces from a northern-based army and include more soldiers from clans and groups from the southern region of Somalia”.

Ambassador Yamamoto:There has to be more southern inclusion in the Somali National Army

“There has to be more southern inclusion because [al-]Shabaab is based in the south” Ambassador Yamamoto told Combating Terrorism Center Sentinel. (Read the Ambassador’s interview here)

 The ambassador’s remarks raise eyebrows of people familiar with the make-up of the Somali National Army. “Puntland has its own Defence Forces that do not come under the command  of the Mogadishu-based Army. Somaliland has a National Army that views Somaliland as a sovereign country” says a retired Somali colonel, who wants to be quoted anonymously.

If one takes Ambassador Yamamoto’s remarks at their face value one is led to believe the Somali National Army draws recruits predominantly from the North.   “Ambassador Yamamoto owes Somali Federal Government some clarification. Both the President and the Prime Minister of Somalia are Southerners. How has  a National Army under their command  become North-dominated? Southerners might feel aggrieved at the make-up of the Somali Army” Abdi Sahal, a security consultant in Mogadishu told Puntland Post.

 The second complication in Ambassador Yamamoto’s interview is his use of the word North. “By North does Ambassador Yamamoto mean the ex-British Somaliland or regions north of Hiiraan” added Abdi Sahal.

There was a plan for Federal Member States to contribute troops to the National Army to diversify it. In 2017 National Army integration committee  paid a visit to Puntland. Puntland Adminstration  under President Dr Abdiweli Mohammed Ali had withdrawn commitment when he co-founded the now-defunct Council of Inter-State Cooperation in 2018.

Troops from the Somali National Army have presence in Banadir, South-West, Hirshabeelle, Galmudug and parts of Jubaland.

© Puntland Post,  2020

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