UAE donates more vehicles to Somali security forces
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has donated Reva III armoured vehicles and other equipment to Somalia’a security forces, weeks after donating Land Cruisers and RG31s vehicles.
The equipment was handed over by the UAE’s ambassador to Somalia, Mohamed Ahamed Osman al Humaidi, to Somali Internal Security minister Abdirizack Omar and Police Commissioner General Mohamed Sheikh Hassan Hamud at the UAE embassy on 10 June, reports Dalsan Radio.
The equipment comprises at least nine Reva III 4×4 armoured vehicles and three tankers, but also includes motorcycles for traffic police.
Omar thanked the UAE for the donation and said it would help the Somali Police Force improve law and order in the country.
In late May the Interim Jubba Administration of Somalia received half a dozen RG-31 armoured personnel carriers and a dozen Toyota Land Cruisers donated by the United Arab Emirates. They were handed over to President Ahmed Mohamed Madobe, who received the vehicles in the southern port town of Kismayo, which is also the capital of the administration.
The UAE, with an embassy in Mogadishu, maintains healthy ties with the Interim Jubba Administration, and is helping rebuild the Somali military in an effort to bring about stability to the Horn of Africa Country. For instance, the UAE’s ambassador to Somalia, Mohamed Al-Othman, visited the administrative capital of the Interim Jubba Administration in March this year.
Last year, the UAE’s armed forces donated vehicles and equipment to the Somali National Security and Intelligence Agencies and have provided training for Somali special operations forces for counter-terrorism missions, reports the UAE’s The National, which adds that the UAE’s support to Somalia is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Earlier last month a UAE-funded military training centre was opened in Mogadishu, which, according to The National, aims to build a brigade to protect the country.
It is possible that the newly delivered RG31s and Toyotas will be utilised by the Interim Jubba Administration police. The Federal Government recently signed an agreement with the Interim Jubba Administration and the Interim South West Administration on the establishment of regional police in their respective regions, with the United Nations and African Union to provide technical advice and monitor the recruiting, vetting, training and deployment of 600 officers for each region.
