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

rited from the British, whose members were biased by the SYL, to which
many of them openly adhered. In this regard, the testimony of the
Carabinieri General Alfredo Arnera still helps: It cannot be overlooked that, on the
basis of the executive clauses of the” protection agreement “, Italy had to inherit the body
of the “Somalia Police Force” as the British “delivered” it without having any chance of
performing those “purges” that were necessary to eliminate some elements (non-commissio-
ned officers and officers) morally corrupt, mainly for the poor economic treatment paid by

the British or politically compromised, due to their irreducible anti-Italian sentiment, con-
sequently not giving the slightest guarantee of the apolitical nature that must distinguish
the members of a Police force .
(41)
Arnera, in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, had taken over, from Ripa di
Meana, the Carabinieri and, consequently, the Somali Police Forces during the
second 5 years period of AFIS activity; his report, however reliable, is slightly
more distant from the events that we faced at the beginning of AFIS.
Lieutenant Colonel Raoul Brunero, on the other hand, being in Somalia before
the AFIS arrival together with Gen. Ferrara, as part of the liaison mission
which was to prepare the ground for the forces arriving from Italy, and the first

to be in charge of the Carabinieri in Somalia from 1950 till 1952, being respon-
sible for the establishment of a security apparatus within the trust administra-
tion and, therefore, the unborn Somali state, in a monograph entitled The
Carabinieri in the initial phase of reorganization of the Somali police 1950-52 , judges
(42)
the problem of the police forces “as obscene”.
He highlights how, even after the bad test given by the Somalian
Gendarmerie during the “bloody day” on January 8, ‘48 and the meritorious

efforts of the Head of the new body created under the name of Somalia
Police Force, “things had changed very little” and that, given that Italy under
the protection agreement had undertaken not only not to dissolve or replace
the Somalia Police Force but also to avoid purges, it was necessary, in other words,
to gorge the toad and, even more, eat it. To this end, an iron stomach was needed (...) this
is why, disregarding a routine policy followed both in North Africa and in East Africa, no
Police Force was envisaged or proposed, not even for the city of Mogadishu. Following the
will of the Ministry of the Italian Africa and the Central Command-approved by the

(41) Documenti elaborati dal sig. Gen. Arnera per la tesi di laurea del Cap. Raggetti USCC, f.
A.F.I.S., fasc. 871.16.
(42) Foglio n. 481/5 di prot. datato 10 aprile 1961 del Comando Generale dell’Arma dei CC
- Uff. Assistenza e Benessere - Pubblicazioni, diretta all’Uff. Servizio e Situazione, con cui si
trasmette, con carico di custodia, la monografia dal titolo “L’Arma dei Carabinieri nella fase
iniziale di riorganizzazione della polizia somala 1950-51” del Ten.Col. Raoul Brunero, USCC,
f. A.F.I.S., fasc. 871.15.

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