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Ministry of Defence (Somalia)

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Ministry of Defence of Somalia
وزارة الدفاع
Wasaaradda Gaashaandhiga
Coat of arms of Somalia
Agency overview
Formed12 April 1960; 64 years ago (1960-04-12)
JurisdictionFederal Government of Somalia
HeadquartersMogadishu,  Somalia
Agency executive
Parent agencyCabinet of Somalia
Websitewww.mod.somaligov.net

The Ministry of Defence (Template:Lang-so) is charged with co-ordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the Somali Armed Forces. The President of Somalia is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the country. The Ministry of Defence provides policy framework and resources to the Armed Forces to discharge their responsibility in the context of the defence of the country. The Armed Forces (including Somali Army, Somali Air Force, and Somali Navy) under the Defence Ministry are primarily responsible for ensuring the territorial integrity of the nation. The current Minister of Defence of Somalia is Hassan Mohomed Amardanbe.[1]

History

Historically, Somali society conferred distinction upon warriors (waranle) and rewarded military acumen. All Somali males were regarded as potential soldiers, except for the occasional religious cleric (wadaado).[2] Somalia's many Sultanates each maintained regular troops. In the early Middle Ages, the conquest of Shewa by the Ifat Sultanate ignited a rivalry for supremacy with the Solomonic dynasty.

In 1914, the Somaliland Camel Corps was formed in British Somaliland and saw service before, during, and after the Italian invasion of the territory during World War II.[2]

After independence, the Darawishta merged with the former British Somaliland Scouts and new recruits to form a 5,000 strong Somali National Army.[3] The new military's first commander was Colonel Daud Abdulle Hirsi, a former officer in the British military administration's police force, the Somalia Gendarmerie.[2] Officers were trained in the United Kingdom, Egypt and Italy. Despite the social and economic benefits that military service brought, the Somali Armed Forces began to suffer chronic manpower shortages only a few years after independence.[4] After the 1969 Somali coup d'état, most Ministers of Defence were drawn from the Supreme Revolutionary Council until 1990-91. The subsequent outbreak of the Somali Civil War from the late 1980s led to the armed forces disintegrating totally.

Somalia's armed forces were gradually reconstituted after the establishment of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in 2004. After the creation of the Transitional Federal Government in 2010, several ministers succeeded each other. Abdihakim Mohamed Fiqi, a former Somali diplomatic with service in Washington, became Minister of Defence in mid-November 2010. While he had known that Al-Shabaab occupied the Ministry of Defence building at the time, he had not realised the weaknesses of the interim MOD premises in the privately owned Jidda Hussein building.[5] There, the ministry had only two rooms, without internet or electricity. Thus the handshake transfer of responsibility - there was nothing more to hand over - took place in the palace, in the living room of the Somali Armed Forces commander.

Organization

  • Minister of Defence
    • Deputy Minister
      • Secretary-General
        • Under the Authority of Secretary-General
          • Internal Audit and Investigation Division
          • Somali Armed Forces Council Secretariat
          • Key Performance Indicator Unit
          • Legal Division
          • Strategic Communications Unit
          • Integrity Unit
        • Deputy Secretary-General (Development)
          • Development Division
          • Procurement Division
          • Somali Armed Forces Cataloguing Authority
        • Deputy Secretary-General (Policy)
          • Policy and Strategic Planning Division
          • Defence Industry Division
          • Defence Reserve Depot
        • Deputy Secretary-General (Management)
          • Human Resource Management Division
          • Information Management Division
          • Finance Division
          • Account Division
          • Administration Division
        • Chief of Defence Forces
          • Chief of Army
          • Chief of Navy
          • Chief of Air Force
          • Joint Force Commander
          • Director of General Defence Intelligence
          • Chief of Staff Somali Armed Forces Headquarters

Defence Ministers

Major General Muhammad Ainanshe, a member of the SRC, lost his portfolio of Minister of Defence on 10 April 1971 before his arrest on 4 May 1971.[6]

Portrait Name
(Birth–Death) 		Term of office Political party
Took office Left office Time in office
• Somali Democratic Republic (1969–1991) •
Mohammad Ali Samatar
Lieutenant General
Mohammad Ali Samatar
(1931–2016)		1976October 19815–6 years SRSP
Omar Haji Mohamed[7]
Brigadier General
Omar Haji Mohamed[7]
(?–?)		October 1981??
Aden Abdullahi Nur
General
Aden Abdullahi Nur
(?–2002)		1986(?)19881–2 years SRSP
Hussein Sheikh Abdirahman
Hussein Sheikh Abdirahman
(1941–2016)
First civilian Defence Minister under Barre[8]		198919900–1 years SRSP
• Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (2004–2012) •
Hussein Sheikh Abdirahman
Hussein Sheikh Abdirahman
(?–2016)
[9]		200820080 years Independent
Mohamed Abdi Mohamed
Mohamed Abdi Mohamed
(born 1954)		21 February 200910 November 20101 year, 262 days Independent
Abdihakim Mohamoud Haji-Faqi
Abdihakim Mohamoud Haji-Faqi12 November 201020 July 2011250 days Independent
Hussein Arab Isse
Hussein Arab Isse20 July 20114 November 20121 year, 107 days Independent
• Federal Republic of Somalia (2012–present) •
Abdihakim Mohamoud Haji-Faqi
Abdihakim Mohamoud Haji-Faqi4 November 201217 January 20141 year, 74 days Independent
Mohamed Sheikh Hassan
Mohamed Sheikh Hassan17 January 201427 January 20151 year, 10 days Independent
Abdulkadir Sheikh Dini
Abdulkadir Sheikh Dini27 January 201521 March 20172 years, 53 days Independent
Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed
Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed21 March 2017Incumbent7 years, 242 days Independent

References

  1. ^ "PM Khaire announces 27 member cabinet". Hiiraan Online. March 21, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Library of Congress Country Study, Somalia, The Warrior Tradition and Development of a Modern Army, research complete May 1992.
  3. ^ Robinson, Colin D. (2019). "Glimpse into an Army at its Peak: Notes on the Somali National Army in the 1960-80s". Defence and Security Analysis. 35 (4): 423–429. doi:10.1080/14751798.2019.1675944.
  4. ^ Library of Congress Country Study, Somalia, Manpower, Training, and Conditions of Service (Thomas Ofcansky), research complete May 1992.
  5. ^ Harun Maruf; Dan Joseph (2018). Inside Al-Shabaab: The Secret History of Al-Qaeda's Most Powerful Ally. Indiana University Press. p. 167.
  6. ^ Daniel Compagnon, "RESSOURCES POLITIQUES, REGULATION AUTORITAIRE ET DOMINATION PERSONNELLE EN SOMALIE: LE REGIME SIYYAD BARRE (1969-1991), PhD thesis, Volume 1, 289-290.
  7. ^ Nelson et al., Country Study, 1982, 247-48, 267.
  8. ^ "Former Somali defense minister dies in US". Hiiraan Online. 2016-05-17. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  9. ^ "Islamists kill Somalia's former defence minister with car bomb". Reuters. 2016-02-15. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
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