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STATE BUILDING E SICUREZZA NELL’ESPERIENZA
DELL’AMMINISTRAZIONE FIDUCIARIA ITALIANA IN SOMALIA

should be the following: 1/3 Darod, 1/3 Hawya, 1/3 of others: Sab, Dir, and
Arabi; in which there is a prevalence of Sab” .
(18)
It was a not always easy recipe, as revealed by a memo from the
Operations Office for General Ferrara, drawn up about a month before the
indications of the Administrator, who indicated 27% of the total Darod enli-
sted, 60% Hawiya , Sat in 10%, Dir in 3% , thus highlighting a significant ini-
(19)
tial imbalance in favor of the Hawiya. The recruitment set off through a
bimonthly “experiment”, during which the candidate was screened in terms of
suitability for the job and reliability .
(20)
His preliminary verification passed through the “Certificate of moral sui-
tability”, a document that in addition to the personal data relating to the inte-
rested party investigated the existence of kinship across the border (presuma-
bly to take into consideration any Ethiopian infiltrations or, on the contrary, to
evaluate the possibility infiltrating potential new recruits into Ethiopian
Ogaden) and actively involving the Kabyle leaders, who had to vouch for the
men belonging to their target group.
During the experiment, more detailed information on the recruit was
acquired through Section “I” of the General Staff of the C.S.S. or through the
Carabinieri Command. In any case, at each recruitment center Somali graduates
of proven trust were already there, often directly known by the officers in
whose service they were placed and under whom they had, in many cases, ser-
ved in the previous colonial past, therefore able to guide their choices on new
candidates. Upon successful completion of these obligations, the recruit was
definitively enlisted.
The objective of diversifying the affiliation of the recruits was actively
pursued, if we consider, for example, that already on 4 April 1950 with a pro-
vision addressed to the Danane recruitment center, Gen. Ferrara authorized the
sending of an officer and some Somali graduates, among those who had rela-
tions of kinship or friendship in the northern area of the country (that of the
Darod), to recruit about 100 elements in order to complete the staff of the
Somali Battalion and that the following 10 April, in order to implement the
(21)

(18) Circolare n. 21092 di prot. datata 10 giugno 1950 diretta al CSS, avente ad oggetto “propor-
zioni etnografiche circa gli arruolamenti fatti sinora”, ibidem.
(19) Promemoria del CSS - SM - Uff. OAO datato 17 maggio 1950, ibidem.
(20) Lettera del Gen. Ferrara all’Amministratore Fornari del 15 settembre 1950, AUSSME, f. I-2,
Busta 37, fasc. 397. Lettera del Gen. Ferrara all’Amministratore Fornari del 15 settembre
1950.
(21) Foglio d’ordini n. 1/1885 di prot. datato 4 aprile 1950 del CSS Uff. OAO diretto al I Btg.
Somalo e datato 4 aprile 1950, AUSSME, f. I-2, Busta 37, fasc. 397.

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