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SECURITY AND STATE BUILDING IN THE EXPERIENCE
OF THE ITALIAN TRUST ADMINISTRATION IN SOMALIA

The other issue was the unreliability of the Police forces, permeated with
elements close to S.Y.L. and opposed to the Italian presence. The General
Ferrara’s staff, in short, feared being taken by surprise by Ethiopian military ini-
tiatives if excluded from border surveillance and, subsequently, being accused
of allowing itself to be surprised: this fear was not without a reason. The poli-
tical line relating to these responsibilities was finally drawn up with the letter
2096 of March 29, 1950 from the Civil and Political Affairs Department of the

Trust Administration , entrusting border surveillance to the Police forces,
(31)
directly dependent on the civil authorities, guarding the border posts and
patrolling the surrounding areas, while the CSS had to support and integrate the
Police effort when necessary and if requested by the local and autonomous civil
authorities. The political decision was balanced: leaving the defense of the bor-
ders to the Police forces was a risk in military terms, but the specular issue was
starting a confrontation on the border between opposing military forces, a fric-
tion that was difficult to dissolve in the long period and had already proved to
be dangerous int past experiences, as witnessed by the accident of the Ual Ual
wells in ‘34. The Security Corps, however, wanted fulfill its part in border sur-

veillance and not remain a mere aid to the Police force. Following a classified
note of 29 April 1950 to the aforementioned Gorini, General Ferrara, relating
about the incident with Ethiopian forces, urged the need to proceed with the
“picketing” of those more uncertain border areas, with the help of armed units,
and acknowledged that he had decided to improve the traffic in order to meet
(32)
the border patrol needs .
The situation of the border, therefore, always remained delicate but,

once the political line and the Police and military competences defined, all the
branches of the administration showed concrete signs of a prudent attitude
towards Ethiopia, generally conciliatory and open to a progressive relaxation
in relationships. In this regard, as an example, the continuous news provided
by the Carabinieri Somalia Group of raids carried out by Abyssinian soldiers
in Somali territory, both as a form of self-support and as a response to corre-
sponding border violations and related raids of Somali clans falling within the
jurisdiction of trust: the fact that, despite their constant iteration, these inci-
dents have never produced signs of escalation in the military confrontation,
gives the idea, on both sides, of a confidence with the concept that the border

(31) Lettera n. 2096 di prot. datata 29 marzo 1950 dell’AFIS - Direzione Affari Civili e Politici
diretta a CSS - Uff. O.A.O. e avente per oggetto “Responsabilità della linea di confine prov-
visoria con l’Etiopia”, AUSSME, f. I-2, Busta 43, fasc. 414.
(32) Nota cl. “Segreto” n. 1/2496 di prot. datato 29 aprile 1950 del CSS e diretta all’AFIS, avente
ad oggetto “Sconfinamento in territorio etiopico”, AUSSME, f. I-2, Busta 43, fasc. 414.

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