After independence, the Darawishta merged with the former British
Somaliland Scouts and new recruits to form a 5,000 strong Somali National Army. The new military's first commander was Colonel
Daud Abdulle Hirsi, a former officer in the British military administration's police force, the Somalia Gendarmerie. Officers were trained in the
United Kingdom,
Egypt, and
Italy. Despite the social and economic benefits that military service brought, the
Somali Armed Forces began to suffer chronic manpower shortages only a few years after independence. After the
1969 Somali coup d'état, most Ministers of Defence were drawn from the
Supreme Revolutionary Council until 1990-91. Major General
Muhammad Ainanshe, a member of the SRC, lost his portfolio of Minister of Defence on 10 April 1971 before his arrest on 4 May 1971. The subsequent outbreak of the
Somali Civil War from the late 1980s led to the armed forces disintegrating totally. Somalia's armed forces were gradually reconstituted after the establishment of the
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in 2004. After the creation of the
Transitional Federal Government in 2010, several ministers succeeded each other. Abdihakim Mohamed Fiqi, a former Somali diplomatic with service in Washington, became Minister of Defence in mid-November 2010. While he had known that
Al-Shabaab occupied the Ministry of Defence building at the time, he had not realised the weaknesses of the interim MOD premises in the privately owned Jidda Hussein building. There, the ministry had only two rooms, without internet or electricity. Thus the handshake transfer of responsibility - there was nothing more to hand over - took place in the palace, in the living room of the
Somali Armed Forces commander. In September 2014, a Somali government delegation led by Prime Minister
Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed attended an international conference in London hosted by the British government, which centred on rebuilding the Somali National Army and strengthening the security sector in Somalia. Ahmed presented to the participants his administration's plan for the development of the Somali Armed Forces, as well as fiscal planning, human rights protection, arms embargo compliance, and ways to integrate regional militias. The summit also aimed to arrange funding for the armed forces. British Prime Minister
David Cameron said that the meeting sought to outline a long-term security plan to strengthen Somalia's army, police and judiciary. In April 2015, the federal Ministry of Defence launched its new Guulwade Plan (Victory Plan), which provided a roadmap for development of the (federal) Somali Armed Forces. It was formulated with technical support from the
United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM). The framework stipulates that international partners are slated to provide capacity-building as well as assistance for joint operations to 10,900 Somali national army troops, with these units drawn from various regions in the country. As of April 2015, UNSOM coordinated international security sector assistance for the SNA in accordance with Somali federal priority areas. It also provides advice on recruitment of female officers, strictures on age appropriate military personnel, legal frameworks vis-a-vis the defence institutions, and a development strategy for the Ministry of Defence. Hassan Hussein Haji the previous defence minister was moved to the Ministry of Justice while Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur was moved from Justice to Defence. Immediately afterwards President
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed "Faarmajo" suspended Roble; the two had had a stormy working relationship. ==Organization==