In Somalia, the Somali National Army (SNA) is a lightly armed force of more than a dozen brigades; its most effective units are assessed to be the US-trained Danab ("Lightning") Advanced Infantry Brigade and those of the Turkish-trained Gorgor ("Eagle") Special Division; SNA soldiers have also received training from Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the EU, Uganda, and the UK; the SNA and supporting security and militia forces are actively conducting operations against the al-Shabaab terrorist group; al-Shabaab controls large parts of southern and central Somalia

the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) operated in the country with the approval of the UN from 2007-2022; its mission included assisting Somali forces in providing security for a stable political process, enabling the gradual handing over of security responsibilities from AMISOM to the Somali security forces, and reducing the threat posed by al-Shabaab and other armed opposition groups; in April 2022, AMISOM was reconfigured and replaced with the AU Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS); the ATMIS mission was to support the Somalia Federal Government (FGS) in implementing the security objectives of the FGS's security transition plan, a comprehensive strategy developed by the FGS and its international partners in 2018 and updated in 2021 to gradually transfer security responsibilities from ATMIS to Somali security forces; originally about 20,000-strong (civilians, military, and police), ATMIS began reducing its staffing levels in mid-2023 and ended its mission at the end of 2024; the follow-on force for ATMIS, the Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) was formed in January 2025 and was slated to have about 12,000 personnel, including soldiers, police and civilian support staff (2025)