Women, disabled undergo military drills to secure Somalia

The Kenya Defence Forces ( KDF) troops are now training Somali soldiers to take over the mandate of securing their country.

At the Dhobley Somali National Army (SNA) training camp, women and 242 men are undergoing military drills.

Fatuma Abdullahi, 32, and Farhia Aden, 37, are not deterred by age in their determination to see a better Somalia, which will be safe for their children.

Abdullahi is a mother of one while Aden, a widow, has seven children who she has to take care of.

However, the training is not as conventional as military training should be because of the unique nature of Somalia’s political and security situation. For a country that has seen two decades with no functional government, there are still many firearms in civilian hands, which make it difficult for security operations.

The training is slightly flexible for the two women to give them time to tend to their children. They report for training in the morning and go home later in the afternoon.

The military also has disabled people – most of them having been victims of war but have decided to stick with the army.

“I joined the army to defend my country, to fight alongside my people in case of any insurgency because all I want to see is peace, peace for our children,” says Abdullahi.

Attend madrassa

Abdullahi’s husband is also in SNA and being trained at the same camp. Every day, the couple drops their son to attend madrassa in Dhobley town.

On the other hand Aden, whose husband died six years ago, joined the military to ward off the militants.

“We had no freedom whatsoever, especially women. They tried to persuade us to join them and we could not agree, so most women, including me, escaped to refugee camps in Kenya,” says Aden.

Despite the fact that there is no money to pay them a worthy salary, the two women say that peace and security is more important than money.

Among some of the challenges that the two women face include having to wake up very early, sometimes as early as 4am to prepare their children for classes before they report to the training camp at 8am.

The two voluntarily went back to Somalia after the terror group was kicked out. They say that they will never fear going to the battlefield.

The Officer Commanding the SNA training camp Col Heybey Abdullahi says that the old people or those injured during the war cannot be locked out of the army, only that they do not go to battle during operations since they are left doing other duties.

The head officer of the army says that the forces being trained by the KDF and Sierra Leone have no pay to write home about because the Somali national government is yet to take responsibility for the army, mostly made up of remnants of the militia groups that fought the Al-Shabaab.

“I cannot, however, forget to mention the help that Amisom has accorded us so far and I believe with more help we will get more people to join the military and we will also become professional enough like other nations. But for now, we have to make do with what we have,” says Heybey.

Given a chance

He says that the women have been given a chance in the army to show that there is equality despite Somalia being majorly Muslim.

The SNA in Dhobley still has no direct link with the National Government in Mogadishu and has its own command chain, different from other SNA troops in different parts of the country. This situation still poses a serious challenge to Somalia because the different training camps might just turn out to be other splinter groups.

“This is where the international community needs to come in ensure that Somalia has a strong force to protect its civilians,” says the Heybey.