The modern Tunisian army was formed in 1831 by
Al-Husayn II ibn Mahmud. During the period of the
French Protectorate (1881–1956) Tunisians were recruited in significant numbers into the
French Army, serving as
tirailleurs (infantry) and
spahis (cavalry). These units saw active service in Europe during both World Wars, as well as in
Indo-China prior to 1954. The only exclusively Tunisian military force permitted under French rule was the
Beylical Guard.
Following independence On June 30, 1956, the Tunisian army was officially founded by decree, in the form of a combined-arms regiment. The necessary equipment was made available to the young state from French stocks. The new army initially comprised 25 Tunisian officers, 250 NCOs and 1,250 men transferred from French Army service, plus 850 former members of the Beylical Guard. In 1961
clashes occurred with French forces based at
Bizerte. More than 600 men fell in battle against the French forces. The French evacuated the base after subsequent negotiations with the Tunisian Government. The Tunisian Navy, founded in 1958, received its first ship in the fall of 1959. The
Air Force acquired its first combat aircraft in 1960 . While the Tunisian armed forces obtain equipment from several sources, the
United States remains the largest single supplier. Tunisia has contributed military forces to
United Nations peacekeeping missions, including an army company to the
United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) during the
Rwandan genocide. In his book
Shake Hands with the Devil, Canadian force commander
Roméo Dallaire gave the Tunisian soldiers high credit for their skills and effort in the conflict and referred to them as his "ace in the hole". During the
2011 Libyan civil war, Tunisian forces, mostly border guards, saw some limited action when fighting between Libyan rebels and loyalist soldiers spilled over the border.
The military and politics The Library of Congress Country Study says:His exclusive power to promote military officers has been among the strongest components of Bourguiba's control over the armed forces. From independence, high-ranking officers—general staff and senior commanders in particular—have been carefully selected for their party loyalty more than for their professional experience and competence. This began in the late 1950s when the president dismissed those officers who had trained in the Middle East and who might therefore have been expected to sympathize with the militant Pan-Arab policies of Egypt's Nasser. The hand-picked senior officers, in turn, carefully screened all officers who were considered for positions of authority in line units to ensure that antiregime elements did not pose potential threats at any level of the military establishment. As a result of these promotion policies, the Tunisian officer corps took on a very homogeneous character that only began to break down in the 1970s. Senior officers have been generally representative of Tunisia's economically and politically dominant families from the north, the coastal areas, and the major cities. Although military men have been kept from operating major business ventures or holding political office while in uniform, it has been common for family members to be prominent in business or in the Destourian political movement. Generally Western and Francophile in outlook, tied by kinship to the country's upper socioeconomic stratum, and personally familiar with leading figures in the PSD, high-ranking Tunisian officers must be classed as part of the national elite.In 2021, Tunisia boosted the role of military in their fight to curb the pandemic's spread. On Monday 5th, the
Tunisian presidency announced that medical and paramedical university graduates of the last three years will be drafted by the army. The intent was to remedy to a shortage of medical staff in public and private hospitals because hundreds of unhappy health professionals have left the country in recent years. Among other decisions, a vaccination campaign will be waged by joint civilian-military teams around the country under the supervision of the army. ==General Staff==