Somali leaders front joint Shabaab offensive, speedy formation of national army

The Federal and state governments will mount a joint offensive against Al-Shabaab and closely coordinate in the training and funding of security forces at both levels of governments, state and federal leaders said Sunday following a week-long meeting in Mogadishu.

In a communique Sunday which covered a range of issues, the leaders said the National Security Council meeting Thursday approved an offensive against Al-Shabaab. President Mohamed Farmaajo has vowed to avenge the October 14 truck bombing in Mogadishu pledging to take the war to the militant group Al-Shabaab.

“..To come up with complete plans to fight with terrorism at federal and regional levels and strengthening the regional member states military forces and Banadir region through training and provision of weaponry,” the communique read in part.

The Security Council chaired by President Farmaajo and attended by federal state leaders and Banadir governor Thabit Mohamed endorsed the President’s war proposal and set a follow-up meeting December 3.

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The meeting which follows President Farmaajo’s whirl wind tour of Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti late October to marshal enhanced support also agreed to expedite the implementation of the Nation Security Pact agreed to during the London Conference and ‘review and firm the weak points in the Security Architecture.’

Donors during London Conference May said the federal and state governments must iron out pending issues in the Security Architecture before making financial commitments to the security roadmap which among others contemplates the formation of a 22,000 strong military composed of 4,000 Special Forces. The Architecture also provides for the creation of 32,000 police forces who will be deployed at the federal and state levels.

NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHITECTURE

The leaders meeting in Mogadishu also said they had put minds together to speed up the formation of a national army with a national character devoid of clan affiliations and set a one month timeline for the re-composition of the national army sectors in line with the National Security Architecture (NSA).

The NSA contemplates the distribution of troops across the existing sectors (12th, 21st, 43rd, 49th, 48th, 54th, 26th and 60th).

“The subsequent distribution of the SNA forces (numbering at least 18,000) across the FMS boundary-aligned sectors, shall be determined based on military and geographic need. SNA and FMS leadership will participate in any necessary redistribution of forces,” the Architecture endorsed by Parliament April and incorporated into the Security Pact agreed to in London reads.

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The leaders also tasked the technical committee of the Security Council to come up with clear plan towards the distribution of the police force and the coastal guards in the meeting of December 2017.

The leaders also noted they had agreed to expedite the integration of the national army. The NSA provides that existing regional forces will become party of SNA or State Police. According to the NSA, this process was to be completed within a three months period starting June 1, 2017. President Farmaajo had indicated at the opening of the meeting he hoped they would agree on the integration of the forces.

“The most important thing in this meeting is to integrate forces from the regional and federal government so that we can attack Al-Shabaab from all fronts,” said Farmaajo adding, “And I hope this will be finalized before the end of this meeting.”

AMISOM TROOPS MOVEMENT

Amisom announced Saturday it was re-aligning its troops in the country in light of an expected offensive against Al-Shabaab and in accordance with it’s draw-down plans. The forces’ spokesman Col. Wilson Rono told Goobjoog News Sunday the troops movement would largely affect sector three which is under Ethiopian forces control taking into consideration the new Ethiopian forces which moved in the country this past week.

“Amisom re-aligns its positions based on threats and plans. This will mainly happen in sector three but there wouldn’t be much movement in other sectors,” said Rono. “We have timelines and instructions from African Union and the UN and these movements are informed by those instructions as we prepare for a draw-down.”

“President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo has also given instructions to Somali National Army and to Amisom as well for an operation,” said Col. Rono.