Quote Originally Posted by M-A Lagrange View Post
Does anyone have any info on the somali army training by EU?
I've came across a few articles that discuss it (here and here)

Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post
MA,

Not sure about the EU training mission, although my recollection was that something was underway in Kenya.
I haven't heard anything about Kenya. However, the EU mission is taking place in Uganda. They plan to train 2,000 soldiers and police. The links above detail more information.

Also, recently, there has been a bolster in the AU Mission. Here is an interesting quote from Stratfor (PM me if you want it sent to you).

The 4,000 additional troops pledged to AMISOM will bring the force to a total of just over 10,000. The 2,000 soldiers from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development countries (Uganda most likely will be the country sending the troops) and the Guinean and Djiboutian troops will represent a significant increase to the 6,200-strong AMISOM force currently in Mogadishu. Of course, this assumes all the new soldiers make it there — something which cannot be taken for granted. The list of states that have reneged on pledges to send peacekeepers to Somalia since 2007 is longer than the list of countries that have actually followed through (Uganda and Burundi).
Also, since the bombing, Uganda has called for the mandate to be changed so Ugandan's can act more aggressively. More from Stratfor:

The AU did authorize an additional 4,000 peacekeepers for Somalia at the summit but left AMISOM’s mandate — which renders the force effectively a high-profile protection unit for areas under the control of the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) — intact. Uganda, the largest contributor to AMISOM, responded by announcing that its troops in Mogadishu would begin acting more aggressively toward al Shabaab with a new interpretation of what qualifies as legitimate self-defense.
My opinion: I don't think the training is being done properly. As the article mentioned in the post above, troops are deserting and taking advantage of the services and weapons provided to them. If we want the training to succeed properly, I think that the trainers should be allowed to embed to a certain extent. This will require a heavier footprint, which has obvious negatives. However, embedded trainers would allow for more cooperation, better training, and possibly a more confident military. That's just an opinion though.