Somali Armed Forces

Somali Armed Forces
Xoogga Dalka Soomaaliyeed
Emblem of the Somali Armed Forces
Founded	12 April 1960
Current form	August 2008[1]
Service branches	Somali National Army[1]  Somali Navy  Somali Air Force
Headquarters	Mogadishu, Somalia
Leadership
Commander-in-chief	Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
Minister of Defence	Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur [2]
Chief of Defence Force	Brigadier General Ibrahim Sheikh Muhyadin Addow
Personnel
Active personnel	apx 45,000 (2023)[3]
Industry
Foreign suppliers	Belarus  China  Cuba  Czech Republic  Hungary  Iran  North Korea  Poland  Russia  Turkey  Ukraine  Vietnam
Related articles
History	See list Shifta War 1964 Ethiopian–Somali Border War Somali invasion of Ogaden Ogaden War Rhamu Incident Somaliland War of Independence[4] 1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War Somali Rebellion Somalia War (2006–2009) Isaaq Genocide[5][6][7][8] Somali Civil War (2009–present) Operation Indian Ocean (2014)
Ranks	Military ranks of Somalia

The Somali Armed Forces are the military forces of the Federal Republic of Somalia.^[9] Headed by the president as commander-in-chief, they are constitutionally mandated to ensure the nation's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.^[10]

In 1990 the Armed Forces were made up of the Army, Air Force, Air Defence Force, and Navy.^[11] From the early 1960s to 1977, the period when good relations existed between Somalia and the Soviet Union, the Armed Forces had the largest armored and mechanized force in sub-Saharan Africa.^[12] Due to Siad Barre's increasing reliance on his own clan, splitting the Armed Forces along clan lines,^[13] and the Somali Rebellion, by 1988 they began to disintegrate.^[14] By the time Barre fled Mogadishu in January 1991, the last cohesive army grouping, the 'Red Berets,' had deteriorated into a clan militia.^[15]

An unsteady rebuilding process began after 2000, and gained pace after the Djibouti Agreement of 2008. The northeastern region of Puntland maintains its own separate military forces.