Uganda EUTM - Somalia

The European Union Training Mission Somalia (EUTM) was launched on 7 April 2010. The purpose of the initiative was to contribute to the stabilisation of the situation in Somalia in accordance with the Djibouti agreement from 2008. The EU made a decision regarding the training programme for the Somalian government’s security forces in January 2010.

The EUTM will train 2,000 men from the Somalian government security forces. The European Union (EU) is training managers at lower levels as well as specialists in various fields such as medical services, communications, and demining. Uganda is in charge of the training of soldiers.

Training for the Somalian soldiers began in May this year and was carried out in close cooperation with the African Union's (AU) initiative in Somalia - Amison, UN, USA and Uganda. Training takes place in Uganda and will last about a year.

Sweden will send three officers who along with three people from the Finnish Defence Forces will form one of the training teams.

The operation is led from the EU headquarters in Uganda by the Spanish Colonel Ricardo Gonzalez Elul.

The mission was concluded July 10 2011