Disarmament in Somalia

After two decades of violence and civil war (which began in 1986) and after the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia captured Mogadishu and Kismayo, the TFG attempted to disarm the militias of the country in late 2006. According to the UN/World Bank's Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) coordination secretariat, "the total estimated number of militias [militia members] to be demobilized is 53,000." In 2005, they estimated that "there are 11-15,000 militia people controlling Mogadishu (out of national estimates ranging from 50,000 to 200,000)."

Since the 1991 war, there have been over a dozen attempts to bring an end to the Somali Civil War. They were often shoaled by warlords and inter-clan rivalries.

In 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) attempted to disarm the secular warlords—a contentious issue which led to the Second Battle of Mogadishu. The Islamist victory resulted in the routing or forced surrender of many warlords and their caches of arms, and the rapid rise of the Islamic Courts Union. By late 2006, their attempts to disarm the secular militias and their consolidation of power pitted them also against the Transitional Federal Government.

The ICU attempted to curb the private possession of weapons, closing down the infamous Mogadishu arms market, and impounding or appropriating technicals for use solely by the Islamic Courts forces:

We were skeptical, but everyone we have spoken to since– doctors, teachers, journalists, shopkeepers– has talked of a city transformed. Gone are the ubiquitous checkpoints where the warlords’ militias killed, extorted and stole. Gone are their technicals, Jeeps with heavy machine guns mounted on the back. The infamous Bakaro arms markets has been closed. The only guns and technicals now are those of the Sharia courts enforcers, and the reports of violence in the papers were of the Ipswich murders.

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