Somalia Arms Its Military With Turkish Weapons: “We Want to Launch Major Projects”

Somalia wants to deepen its defense and economic partnership with Türkiye, equipping its army with Turkish weapons and planning major joint projects, Defense Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi said in an interview.

“Right now, we have state-of-the-art combat helicopters produced by Türkiye, along with large defense vehicles our armed forces are already using,” Fiqi said. “We want to launch major projects with Türkiye.”

The minister pointed to a memorandum of understanding between the two countries’ defense ministries under which Somali special forces are trained by Turkish officers at the TURKSOM Military Training Base near Mogadishu.

Fiqi recalled President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 2011 visit to Somalia, when Al-Shabaab militants surrounded the capital. “I remember that day. A few days later, the city was liberated, and today Mogadishu has enjoyed stability for 14 years,” he said, crediting Somali institutions and Türkiye’s support for the turnaround.

Somalia’s partnership with Türkiye now includes the country hosting Ankara’s largest embassy worldwide. Fiqi said economic cooperation would be critical to sustaining stability: “We are in a better place today, and I see this relationship continuing to grow.”