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Somalia FOREIGN MILITARY ASSISTANCE
Throughout its history, Somalia has had to rely on foreign
sources to equip and help maintain its military establishment.
During the colonial period, Britain and Italy relied on military
force to consolidate their respective positions in Somalia. These
two nations then established and outfitted indigenous military
units to help preserve internal security in their spheres of
influence.
Shortly after independence, Somalia determined that its
national interests required development of a 20,000-man army.
Because of its weak economy, however, the Somali government
rarely has been able purchase matériel outright. Instead, it has
had to depend on donor countries whose assistance has been
motivated by their own national interests. Somalia initially
sought support from the United States. However, Washington argued
that a 5,000-man army would be sufficient to maintain Mogadishu's
internal security. Somali leadership, determined to press its
irredentist claims against neighbors in the Horn of Africa,
therefore looked elsewhere for military assistance.
In 1962 the Soviet Union agreed to grant a US$32 million loan
to modernize the Somali army, and expand it to 14,000 personnel.
Moscow later increased the amount to US$55 million. The Soviet
Union, seeking to counter United States influence in the Horn of
Africa, made an unconditional loan and fixed a generous twenty-
year repayment schedule.
During the rest of the 1960s, the Soviet Union provided
Somalia with a substantial number of T-34 tanks, armored
personnel carriers, MiG-15 and MiG-17 aircraft, small arms, and
ammunition. Approximately 300 Soviet military advisers deployed
to Somalia to train the army, and about 500 Somali pilots,
officers, and technicians received training in the Soviet Union.
Until Siad Barre seized power in 1969, Somalia's Western
orientation and small amounts of United States and West German
aid to the Somali police force limited the impact of Soviet
military assistance. After the coup, however, Siad Barre embraced
scientific socialism and the Soviet Union became Somalia's major
supplier of military matériel.
Over the next eight years, the Somali-Soviet military
relationship prospered. In 1972 Defense Minister Andrei Grechko
visited Somalia and signed an agreement to improve and modernize
the port of Berbera in return for Soviet access to the facility.
The Soviet Union eventually built Berbera into a base that
included a missile storage facility for the Soviet navy, an
airfield with runways nearly 5,000 meters long and capable of
handling large bombers, and extensive radar and communications
facilities. Access to Berbera gave the Soviet Union a presence in
the strategically important Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf region to
counter United States military activities in the area. Berbera
acquired additional importance when Egypt expelled all Soviet
advisers in July 1972.
After signing the 1974 Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation
with Moscow, Mogadishu started taking delivery of numerous
sophisticated weapon systems, including MiG-21 jet fighters, T-54
tanks, a SAM-2 missile defense system for Mogadishu, and modern
torpedo and missile-armed fast attack and landing craft for the
navy. Soviet military advisers increased in number to about
1,500, supplemented by approximately 50 Cubans. The Soviet Union
also trained and organized the Somali army's intelligence
apparatus and the NSS. By the time Siad Barre terminated the
Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with Moscow and expelled all
Soviet advisers in 1977, about 2,400 Somali military personnel
had undergone training in the Soviet Union and another 150 in
Eastern Europe.
Somalia also relied on the Muslim world for military
assistance. Somalia's ideological ties with the Islamic world
reinforced mutual interests shared with several Muslim states,
most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, and provided the
basis for military cooperation. In the 1960s, Cairo trained the
Somali army and navy.
During the Ogaden War, Egypt provided approximately US$30
million in military assistance to Siad Barre's regime. After the
conflict ended, Egypt supplied ammunition and spare parts for
some of Somalia's Soviet-made equipment, such as T-54/T-55 tanks
and armored personnel carriers. After the 1982 renewal of
hostilities between Somalia and Ethiopia, Egypt delivered T-54
and T-55 tanks, 37mm antiaircraft guns, and ammunition.
Thereafter, Egypt furnished more spare parts for Somalia's
Soviet-made equipment, opened its military schools to Somali
personnel, and, until the late 1980s, maintained a small military
training team in Somalia.
Like Egypt, Saudi Arabia provided military assistance to
Somalia in an effort to keep that country stable, conservative,
and pro-Western. After Somalia joined the League of Arab States
(Arab League) in 1974, Saudi Arabia, supported by Iran, tried to
weaken the Somali-Soviet alliance by making a US$75 million aid
package contingent on a reduction of Soviet activities in
Somalia. When Siad Barre rejected this condition, Riyadh withdrew
the offer. When Somalia broke with the Soviet Union in 1977,
Saudi Arabia rewarded Somalia by paying for old stocks of
Egyptian and Sudanese weapons, which were then sent to Mogadishu.
Until Siad Barre's downfall, Riyadh provided Mogadishu with a
variety of weapons, including armored and reconnaissance
vehicles, small arms, and ammunition. Additionally, Saudi Arabia
trained SNA personnel.
Other Middle East states also supplied military assistance to
Somalia. During the Ogaden War, for example, Iraq, Iran, and
Jordan provided small arms and ammunition to the SNA. In 1982
Kuwait delivered forty Centurion tanks to Somalia. The United
Arab Emirates and Oman equipped the SAF with Hawker Hunter
fighters and Britten Norman Defender transports. Furthermore,
funds from Islamic states enabled the acquisition of numerous
weapons, the most notable of which was China's F-6 fighter-bomber
in 1981.
The United States and several West European countries refused
to supply weapons to Somalia as long as that country remained
close to the Soviet Union. Once it became clear that a rift had
developed between Somalia and the Soviet Union because of the
latter's warming relations with Ethiopia, Washington adopted a
new policy toward Siad Barre's regime. On July 26, 1977, the
Department of State announced that the United States, Britain,
and France were prepared to provide arms to Somalia.
Approximately one year later, however, Washington reversed itself
because of Mogadishu's decision to use military force to try to
incorporate Ethiopia's Ogaden region into Somalia. According to
the United States and most West European countries, no military
equipment would be transferred to Somalia until Mogadishu
withdrew its forces from the Ogaden. Even after the SNA evacuated
the Ogaden and Siad Barre promised to respect the boundaries of
neighboring states, it was more than two years before the United
States provided arms to Somalia.
The United States decision to begin a military assistance
program in Somalia grew out of Washington's desire to bolster its
presence in the Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf region after Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran, fell from power in 1979. In
August 1980, Washington and Mogadishu signed an agreement whereby
the former received access to Somali ports and airfields in
Berbera, Mogadishu, and Chisimayu in exchange for providing US$40
million in defensive military equipment over the next two years.
This equipment included three TPS-43 long-range air defense
radars, twelve M-167 (towed) Vulcan 20mm air defense guns, and
associated communications gear, spare parts, and training. The
agreement did not become official until February 1981 because of
insistence by the United States Congress on the verified
withdrawal of Somali troops from the Ogaden.
Over the next few years, the United States increased its
military assistance to Somalia. In 1982, for example, equipment
sales and gifts amounted to US$14.3 million; on July 24 of that
year, the United States responded to an Ethiopian attack on
Somalia by providing the Siad Barre regime with antitank weapons,
radars, air defense guns, small arms, and ammunition. In 1983
United States military aid totaled US$21.2 million; in 1984
US$24.3 million; in 1985 US$80 million, a large amount of which
included air-transpor;
table 155mm M-198s; in 1986 US$40 million;
and in 1987 approximately US$37.1 million. For 1981-84 United
States Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Somalia included US$57.15
million in delivered matériel, US$60 million financed with a
Department of Defense guarantee, and US$1.811 million in
commercial exports. During this same period, the United States
trained 126 Somali military personnel under the International
Military Education and Training (IMET) program. The cost of the
training came to more than US$2.31 million. Somalia also
participated in the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM)
Operation Bright Star exercises.
After the SNM launched armed attacks in northern Somalia in
late May 1988, the United States provided Somalia with US$1.4
million worth of military equipment, which consisted of 1,200 M16
automatic rifles and 2 million rounds of M16 ammunition, 300,000
rounds of 30-caliber ammunition, and 500,000 rounds of 50-caliber
ammunition. Additionally, the Department of Defense donated US$1
million for a 220-bed hospital, which operated in Berbera to help
victims of the conflict.
United States military aid to Somalia diminished
significantly after it became clear that Siad Barre's regime had
committed human rights violations against civilian populations in
northern Somalia. Nevertheless, according to official United
States statements, the United States maintained a security
assistance program in Somalia largely to protect its access to
Somali air and port facilities; strengthen the Somalis' ability
to maintain military equipment of United States origin; encourage
national reconciliation through greater concern for human rights
and civil liberties, military restraint, and political
accommodation with the opposition elements; and support private
sector revitalization. Until Siad Barre's downfall, United States
military aid to Somalia consisted primarily of technical
assistance and IMET training.
Starting in 1978, Italy furnished more military aid to
Somalia than any other Western country. This aid included several
large shipments of Fiat trucks, which formed the backbone of the
SNA's logistics system throughout the 1980s. Beginning in 1979,
many Italian companies, assisted by government-subsidized export
credits, supplied aircraft and training for SAF flight and ground
crews. The aircraft included six SIAI-Marchetti SF-260W single-
engine trainer/tactical support aircraft, four Aeritalia G-222
twin-engine transports, and two Piaggio 166 transports. Fiat also
sold light tanks and armored cars to the SNA. By 1980 Italian
exports to Somalia amounted to US$124 million. The following
year, Italian foreign minister Emilio Colombo visited Mogadishu
and signed a US$40 million aid package. Subsequently, Italy
furnished an array of military equipment to Somalia, including
armored vehicles, trucks, tanks, helicopters, small arms, and
ammunition. In July 1983, Italy and Somalia signed an accord that
provided for the training of Somali military personnel. In
February 1985, the two countries concluded a new military
assistance agreement. Apart from this cooperation, Italian naval
ships regularly called at Mogadishu; in May 1986, for example,
the frigates Scirocco and Grecale made a five-day
visit to Somalia. In the late 1980s, Italy started rehabilitating
the SNA's M-47 tanks; however, deteriorating conditions
throughout Somalia prevented the completion of this program. On
July 11, 1990, citing delays in the democratization and national
reconciliation processes, Italy announced the withdrawal from
Somalia of its fifty-six army and air force advisers and
instructors.
The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) specialized in
aid to the Somali police and security services. Bonn also trained
about sixty Somali Army Special Forces personnel and maintained a
technical assistance mission with the police air wing to service
the Dornier Do-28s. Until 1985 West Germany had delivered
vehicles and radio communications equipment valued at 68 million
deutsche marks (DM). For the 1985-87 period, West German aid
amounted to DM12 million. Like other Western nations, Bonn
curtailed its military assistance to Somalia after the armed
forces started committing human rights violations against
civilians.
Cooperation between Somalia and China started before the
break between Mogadishu and Moscow. It was not until 1981,
however, that Beijing emerged as a major arms supplier to Siad
Barre's regime. Thereafter, China supplied Somalia with an array
of weaponry, including F-6 fighter-bombers in 1981, F-7 fighter-
bombers in 1984, artillery, antiaircraft guns, rocket launchers,
mortars, small arms, and ammunition. China also provided
technical assistance to the Somali armed forces. On February 10,
1989, Somalia and China signed an agreement transferring
Somalia's territorial fishing rights to China in exchange for
armament credits. Beijing continued to provide military
assistance to Mogadishu until the downfall of Siad Barre's
regime.
Since the mid-1980s, there had been numerous unconfirmed
reports of Somali-South African military cooperation. The
relationship supposedly began on December 18, 1984, when South
African foreign minister Roelof "Pik" Botha visited Somalia and
conducted discussions with Siad Barre. The two leaders reportedly
signed a secret communiqué granting South African Airways landing
rights in Somalia and the South African navy access to the ports
of Chisimayu and Berbera. It was said that Somalia also agreed to
sell South Africa eight MiG-21 fighters. In exchange, South
Africa reportedly promised to provide Somalia with Soviet-built
equipment, including tanks, captured in Angola and Mozambique.
South Africa supposedly arranged to ship spare parts and
ammunition for the Hawker Hunter aircraft supplied to Somalia by
the United Arab Emirates, and to be responsible for the salaries
of ten former Rhodesian Air Force pilots who already were in
Somalia helping to train Somali pilots and technicians and flying
combat missions in the north. Despite Mogadishu's repeated
denials of a military link with Pretoria, rumors of a Somali-
South African alliance continued to surface until the downfall of
Siad Barre's regime.
The outbreak of the SNM insurgency in mid-1988 and the
drying-up of traditional sources of foreign military assistance
persuaded Siad Barre to seek arms from Libya. On October 7, 1988,
a Libyan Arab Airlines jet reportedly delivered nerve gas to
Somalia. It was widely reported that Libya had acquired the
chemical weapons from Iran. Mogadishu denied these charges. No
evidence surfaced to confirm the existence of Libyan-supplied
chemical weapons in Somalia. However, Tripoli supplied small
amounts of conventional military weapons and ammunition to Siad
Barre's regime. By early 1989, it was evident that the Somali
government's strategy of using Libyan-supplied weapons to defeat
the SNM and other insurgent groups had failed.
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