WHERE ARE THE ARMIES OF SOMALI CIVIL WAR CLAN MILITIA?

Some are absorbed into the extremist activities, others into the growing private security industry, still others remain clan reserve militia ready to be mobilized at short notice. Where are the rest? They were recruited into Somali National Army, which is a clan-based symbolic Federal entity from South-Central Somalia.This is the Somali National Army drawing its ranks-and-file from clan militia of extremists, of defunct Union of Islamic Courts, of former clan warlords, of Mogadishu business tycoons and of international aid industry and projects. Most are recruited without proper rehabilitation and demobilization. Many suffer from postwar trauma and require long-term medical treatment.

The leaders of the Federal Government never attempted to seriously assess and appreciate the negative impact the civil war had on people, on youth, in particular. Farmaajo is obsessed of building “strong national army” from South-Central clan militia of Hawiye and Marehan origin. He is using Marehan youth just the way Siyaad Barre did in his days of the Military Regime (1969 -1991). Many Marehan elders, former officers and officials of that regime express sorrow and regrets that they had been used unwisely and deceptively to their own detriment, never gaining anything back for their clan loyalty. The story now is repeating itself with Farmaajo. Be warned.