Sudanese military officers (SAF) were brought to central Somalia to train nearly 1,000 Somali recruits in a programme overseen by Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), according to recent intelligence-linked reporting cited by Sky News Arabia and the Africa Intelligence bulletin.
The training reportedly took place in Galmudug state at camps in Adado and Guriel, with 973 recruits trained at Adado starting in December 2024, while a further 432 recruits underwent intensive drills in Guriel before joining the main force, according to details published by Geeska citing the same reporting.
A Sudanese detachment of six officers and nine non-commissioned officers was reportedly contracted on renewable one-year terms signed in Adado in February 2025, with monthly salaries ranging between $1,000 and $2,000. Geeska reported the unit was led by Brigadier General Omar Al-Siddiq Ibrahim Mohamed, naming several senior officers attached to the mission.
Sky News Arabia said part of the programme focused on strengthening what it described as a “civil guard” structure — framed as a local self-defence formation — alongside parallel training tracks. The report linked the operation to NISA’s military training department and to shifts in NISA leadership, noting Mahad Mohamed Salad’s return to lead the agency in 2025.
The reporting also placed the training in a wider Somali political context, citing tensions between the federal government in Mogadishu and some federal member states amid constitutional and electoral disputes, and suggesting local militia training could affect internal balances of power
