Somali National Army Joins Multinational Military Exercise in Turkey, Deepening Ankara-Mogadishu Defense Partnership

The Somali National Army participated in a multinational military exercise hosted by Turkey on May 2, 2026, in a demonstration of the deepening bilateral defense partnership between Ankara and Mogadishu. Turkey has been Somalia's most consistent bilateral defense partner since President Erdogan's 2011 Mogadishu visit during the famine, and currently operates Camp Turksom — Turkey's largest overseas military base — near Mogadishu, which has trained over 10,000 SNA soldiers. The May 2 exercise comes as Turkey has dramatically expanded its economic footprint in Somalia in 2026: Turkish drillship Çağrı Bey began Somalia's first offshore oil exploration under a TPAO concession in April 2026, and the Blue Economy Ministry was inaugurated on April 23. The SNA's participation in international exercises in Turkey reflects an effort to build conventional military professionalism and interoperability alongside the ongoing counterinsurgency campaign against Al-Shabaab. However, critics — including opposition MPs in Somalia and Uganda's military chief Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who publicly questioned Turkey's expanding role in April — have raised concerns about the terms and scope of Ankara's growing strategic presence. The exercise occurs amid Somalia's constitutional crisis (11 days to President Mohamud's May 15 term expiry) and a worsening piracy surge that has elevated the maritime threat to 'severe.'