Military of Somalia

Somali Armed Forces Xoogga Dalka Soomaaliyeed القوات المسلحة الصومالية
Emblem of the Somali Armed Forces
Founded	1960
Service branches	Somali National Army Somali Air Force Somali Navy
Headquarters	Mogadishu, Somalia
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed
Minister of Defense	Abdulkadir Sheikh Dini
Chief of Army	Mohamed Adam Ahmed
Manpower
Military age	18
Available for military service	2,260,175 (2010 est.; males) 2,159,293 (2010 est.; females), age 18–49
Fit for military service	1,331,894 (2010 est.; males) 1,357,051 (2010 est.; females), age 18–49
Reaching military age annually	101,634 (2010 est.; males) 101,072 (2010 est.; females)
Active personnel	12,000
Reserve personnel	24,000
Expenditures
Percent of GDP	0.9% (2005)
Industry
Foreign suppliers	European Union  United States Gulf states  Turkey

The Somali National Armed Forces (SNAF) are the military forces of Somalia, officially known as the Federal Republic of Somalia. Headed by the President as Commander in Chief, they are constitutionally mandated to ensure the nation's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

Before 1991, SNA was initially made up of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Police Force. Once regarded as one of Africa’s best armies, the Somali National Army (SNA) has had better days before its disintegration with the collapse of the central government in 1991. Due to patrimonial and repressive state policies, the military had by 1988 begun to disintegrate. By the time President Siad Barre fled in 1991, the armed forces had dissolved. As of January 2014, the security sector is overseen by the Federal Government of Somalia's Ministry of Defence, Ministry of National Security, and Ministry of Interior and Federalism. The fall of the central government in 1991 brought about the collapse of the state institutions, and the military was not spared. The army is currently restructuring in the hope of restoring calm and order to the country following two decades of incessant conflict.

Historically, Somali society conferred distinction upon warriors (waranle) and rewarded military acumen. All Somali males were regarded as potential soldiers, except for the odd religious cleric (wadaado). Somalia's many Sultanates each maintained regular troops. In the early Middle Ages, the conquest of Shewa by the Ifat Sultanate ignited a rivalry for supremacy with the Solomonic dynasty.

Many similar battles were fought between the succeeding Sultanate of Adal and the Solomonids, with both sides achieving victory and suffering defeat. During the protracted Ethiopian-Adal War (1529–1559), Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi defeated several Ethiopian Emperors and embarked on a conquest referred to as the Futuh Al-Habash ("Conquest of Abyssinia"), which brought three-quarters of Christian Abyssinia under the power of the Muslim Adal Sultanate. Al-Ghazi's forces and their Ottoman allies came close to extinguishing the ancient Ethiopian kingdom, but the Abyssinians managed to secure the assistance of Cristóvão da Gama's Portuguese troops and maintain their domain's autonomy. However, both polities in the process exhausted their resources and manpower, which resulted in the contraction of both powers and changed regional dynamics for centuries to come. Many historians trace the origins of hostility between Somalia and Ethiopia to this war. Some scholars also argue that this conflict proved, through their use on both sides, the value of firearms such as the matchlock musket, cannons and the arquebus over traditional weapons.