Africa Up Close

An interesting new book offers considerable food for thought about the ongoing efforts to build an effective set of Somali security services. Roy Licklider’s edited volume, New Armies from Old: Merging Competing Military Forces after Civil Wars provides a useful overview of current knowledge on this important topic based on several macro-level analyses and eleven national case studies (Sudan, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Rwanda, Philippines, South Africa, DR Congo, Mozambique, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, and Burundi).

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is currently conducting a series of offensive operations against al-Shabaab forces across south-central Somalia. It is doing so in conjunction with elements of the Somali National Army (SNA) and with support from some militias aligned with the Federal Government. Al-Shabaab has offered little conventional resistance, instead usually preferring to withdraw, destroy wells, and try and sow inter-clan conflict in the settlements it has departed. With the imminent arrival of Somalia’s rainy season, the AU and government troops are rushing to gain as much ground as possible. Then attention will turn to whether the Federal Government and AMISOM can provide some form of effective administration and basic services in the newly captured areas.