Challenges ahead to develop Somali’s Marine forces (Navy)

The last articles we talked about illegal fishing and the last world operations in Somali water. The overall conclusion to solve all the challenges ended up to develop Somali's Navy unless it is done the existing challenges in our ocean would remain. In the last years, rebuilding of the Somali’s important  institutions was going on and some of them reached a at good stage but the marine forces(Navy) did not do visible improvements alongside having the longest mainland coast in Africa. Of course the country came from a severe situation and the government was tackling many problems that took all its attention. Now it is the time to think more for the development of our Navy. There are many challenges ahead to reshape the navy, including the financial obstacles, lack of  focus to develop the Marine forces( Navy) and so on.

The navy needs more budget that requires to be planned especially, because when it comes to the sea operations for the forces, it is totally different because they need many equipments including warships, submarine, patrol crafts and so on which also need maintenance and sustainability and it is not too easy comparing to land forces facility, anyway Marine forces is very important for Somalis since this long coast requires protection, there should be well prepared plan to develop the navy and it can be done when it is committed for the Somalis , one of the reasonable ways to think for the budgetto develop this sector including Navy can be;for example there are migratory fishes that go through in our exclusive Economic zone Seasonally, we may give licenses to the foreign vessels which can fish our offshore by keeping the regulations and avoiding any kind of violations since our local fishers mostly do not go such far area and the country can earn more money in that by returning to the Navy, ports and fisheries sector development but it is necessary to be careful any problems coming from these vessels, firstly they should not close to the coasts and they must be inspected so this can be one of easy ways that somalis can make Money before thinking oil production and other bigger investments.  

Lack of focus to develop Somali's navy. The government of Somalia was engaging the inland issues including, the restoration of peace in the country, rebuilding other important institutions for governmental systems that leads to loss the attention of developing the Somali's navy which is very crucial for the protection of territorial sea from any kind of enemy furthermore, many somalis are not aware the importance of oceans including senior officials that may be required to propose these issues.

World's assistance, Somalia has been dependent for world support in many areas, including humanitarian, budget support but Somalis should come up with a developmental agenda towards its Navy to get rid of many bad things happening in our ocean like illegal fishing, dumping wastes to the ocean, Smalling, and etcetera.

By Hassan Abdullahi Mao