REBUILDING SOMALI NATIONAL ARMY
AU has called on rebuilding of the Somali National Army to secure Somalia.
According to an AU official, Somalia government needs to concentrate on rebuilding and strengthening its national army to counter security threats posed by Al-Shabaab militancy.
Somali Army stands a good chance to take over security and deal with Al-Shabaab menace once AMISOM mandate expires.
The Al Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab continues to carry out attacks to topple the International backed government of Somalia and to instill the Islamist Sharia Law.
AU has cited that rebuilding of a strong national army will go a long way in eliminating terrorism and securing Somalia.
SNA are well versed with their terrain and with sharing of HUMINT (human intelligence) from the Somali people who are mostly affected by ills of terrorism, it will be easy to defeat Al-Shabaab, African Union special representative of Somalia and head of the AU mission, Francisco Madeira noted during his visit in Mogadishu last week.
Madeira called on coordination between SNA and AMISOM battling Al-Shabaab stressing a strong and capable army is important in bringing peace in Somalia.
Strong and capable army will be able to safeguard and provide protection to the government and its institutions which for now heavily relies on African Union forces (AMISOM).
Somalia has been faced by Al-Shabaab militancy for decades that has destroyed the country’s institutions including the country’s once strong army but is slowly recovering from the ills of Al-Shabaab that continues to wages guerrilla attacks across the country.
The planned Somali army must be just strong enough to fight and contain Al-AShabaab.
BUT IT MUST NOT BE STRONG ENOUGH TO DEFEND SOMALIA AGAINST ETHIOPIA AND KENYA.
The West has quite a complicated balancing activity to do here
.
I think the US, UN, EU, and other crusade forces will provide the Somali army with special hi-tech bullets that can kill only Al-Shabaab militants, but are ineffective against Ethiopian and Kenyan soldiers.