Danab Brigade: Inside Somalia's Elite Commando Force

Somalia is one particular country that is likely to be near the top of just about everybody’s list when it comes to war-torn conflict zones, brutal civil wars, and failed states. Between the de-facto independent government in the northern Somaliland region, the autonomous state of Puntland at Somalia’s outermost tip, the fragile and often fiery Somali government, and the continued resurgence of the simultaneously Somali-ethnonationalist and jihadist terror group al-Shabaab, Somalia is among the world’s most profoundly broken nations. It seems to be very far away from ever finding its footing as a coherent sovereign state. But among the carnage and the chaos, one group of elite special operators stands out—and not a group on loan from the United States, Europe, Russia, China, or anywhere else on Earth, but one made up of Somalis and directly loyal to the Somali National Army. They are called the Danab Brigade, and armed with the best weapons foreign aid can buy, a distinctive sky-blue beret, and a wealth of knowledge taken direct from the mouths of American Navy SEALs, they are an enigmatic and deadly force at work all across the deserts of Somalia.

Key Takeaways

Formed in 2013 with an initial 150 recruits, the Danab Brigade has grown to approximately 2,000 elite troops operating across Somalia.
The private military contractor Bancroft Global Development originally conducted Danab's six-month training process at Baledogle Airfield before US military advisors joined.
Since mid-2022, the Danab Brigade has dismantled al-Shabaab control over three districts in Galmudug province and liberated over 100 towns and villages.
Danab recruits from multiple Somali clans across different federal states to prevent the unit from being perceived as the enforcer of a single faction.
In 2017, Danab operators participated in a joint raid alongside SEAL Team Six in Barii to pursue al-Shabaab leader Mahad Karate.
Despite operational successes, Danab's victories are often temporary because the regular Somali military frequently lacks the capacity to hold captured territory.

The Historical Context of Somalia's Collapse and the Rise of al-Shabaab

The history of the Danab Brigade cannot be understood without context—and specifically, without a clear understanding of what Somalia has been through over the last half-century. While Somalia has not known much peace since it first gained its independence in 1950, the really difficult years began in 1969, when Muhammad Siad Barre rose to power in a coup after the nation’s prior president was assassinated. Through famine and mass starvation in the 1970s, and war with Ethiopia and its Cuban allies through the 1980s, Somalia narrowly survived the Barre years. When Barre was overthrown in 1991, the entire nation descended into chaos. For the following several years, Somalia would know perpetual civil war between a wide range of warlord and militia factions, with a US-led intervention trying and failing to put a stop to the violence. Even after the Somali government technically did consolidate, that war has only continued, with intermittent flares in the bloodshed proving more than enough to keep the entire fractured nation on a knife’s edge. But since the mid-2000s, no armed group in Somalia has been quite so devastating as the al-Shabaab organization. With a name translating to "the Youth", and a history tracing back to popular guerrilla resistance against an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in late 2006, the group rapidly radicalized through the late 2000s and picked up widespread support as a popular insurgent movement. An Islamist and fiercely Somali-nationalist group, al-Shabaab claims to represent the interests of the entire Somali diaspora, even outside Somalia's own borders, and it aspires to create a new, larger Somali state under Islamic law, spanning across the African Horn. The group declared allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012 and has long relied on suicide attacks and brutal violence to fight against the Somali government. It is known for its harsh imposition of Sharia law on the areas of Somalia that it controls, and for its continued resilience against counterattacks by the Somali government, even when the government is supported directly by foreign powers.

American Intervention and the Formation of the Danab Brigade

Al-Shabaab is present all over Somalia, holding significant territory in the south, and maintaining bases even in Somaliland and Puntland, where the government in Mogadishu wields next to no power. Against al-Shabaab's rising tide, international onlookers watching Somalia understood that something more was necessary, if the nation's fragile government was going to prevent a complete al-Shabaab takeover sooner or later. The solution came by way of the United States, which was at that time still deeply embroiled in Afghanistan, trying to cope with the Syrian Civil War and the broader repercussions of the Arab Spring, and working overtime to create any points of stabilization that they possibly could, as bulwarks in the evolving War on Terror. In Somalia, America's vision was ambitious, but precise in terms of what exactly Mogadishu would need if it was going to prevent Somalia from getting any worse. America's choice to support the Somali central government was much more one of urgent need than choice. Backing that regime was deemed better than kicking off a whole new round of large-scale civil war. In order to try and ensure Mogadishu's survival, America was going to give them a weapon: a highly trained group of loyal Somalis who were capable of standing up to al-Shabaab in a direct firefight and coming out on top. The group would have to be able to include members of many Somali clans, not just one, and its members would have to be willing to work together in service to the Somali state, not their own clan leaders. They would have to be very well-trained to stand up to al-Shabaab militants who were, at that time, the most fearsome fighters in the country, and they would have to be exceptionally brave, in order to hold their ground against fighters with a deservedly terrifying reputation for their brutality in combat. The training and selection processes were to be carried out not by the US military, but by a private military contractor known as Bancroft Global Development. Previously known as Landmine Clearance International, Bancroft has gained a reputation for training hardened units in war-torn nations, although Somalia has since become the group's primary focus. Their trainees were a total of 150 recruits, who began the process at Baledogle Airfield, about 90 kilometers northwest of Mogadishu, in October of 2013. After a six-month training course, the recruits who had made it through Bancroft's training were inaugurated to the first class of commandos. The group was given a name—Danab, meaning "lightning"—and by the end of 2014, the unit had swelled its ranks to include somewhere around five to six hundred commandos in total.

Rigorous Recruitment, Clan Integration, and Specialized Training

In the early days of the Danab Brigade, the Somali military was not a place where the average person wanted to be. At that time, the military was only loosely held together by its few loyal officers, and was hardly more of a formidable force than any of the country's patchwork of militias. Its recruits largely came from the poorest of the poor across Somalia, enticed to the military by the opportunity to make a small, but non-zero amount of money. When Danab got its start, it brought together the relatively few Somali soldiers who had been willing to distinguish themselves over and above what was expected to earn their pay, but those soldiers have since proved more than capable of surpassing expectations. Non-military recruits are also welcome in Danab, and undergo a crash course in basic training as part of their selection. All recruits are scrutinized for physical fitness, political affiliation, and socioeconomic background, and they have biometric data collected and evaluated to ensure that they have not committed any known human rights violations in the past. Since the early days, Somalia has begun to target more experienced combat veterans for recruitment in Danab, especially as the Somali government has waged a more active counteroffensive against al-Shabaab and taken some steps to improve the quality of its troops overall. Highly educated Somalis are in particular demand to join Danab’s ranks, further helping to shape perceptions of the unit as some of the best that Somalia has to offer. Women, too, were allowed to qualify in Danab by 2021, and a handful have since joined the group’s ranks. Equally important within Danab is the group’s emphasis on recruiting from multiple Somali clans, in order to avoid the intense factionalism and clan loyalties that permeate all of Somali politics. It would be all too easy for Danab to gain a reputation as a US-backed, highly trained enforcement arm of just one clan, and thus quickly become despised by all the others. Instead, Danab has recruited from clans representing a range of Somali federal states. One of the US’s eventual goals for the unit is to be able to deploy brigades made up of local troops in each of Somalia’s states, making the group into an elite combination of military and police forces trusted by the local population. By weighing a recruit's clan loyalties against their individual merit as a potential soldier, Bancroft and the United States have been able to keep Danab from seeming like an occupying army, or an extension of the will of whatever person wields the greatest influence in Mogadishu on a given day. When a Danab recruit enters the group's selection process, they face an ordeal deeply inspired by the US Army Rangers, Special Forces operators, and Navy SEALs who have had a major impact on the unit. Soldiers who make it through the group's hazy selection trials then receive intense training on both urban and rural warfare, with an emphasis on both carrying out, and dealing with, the asymmetric warfare that has become so commonplace across Somalia. Unlike other military elements within Somalia, Danab is expected to wage war on al-Shabaab's territory, dealing with the best of the group's fighters, and using its own tactics against it. They are also taught how to navigate through the Somali savannah, engage in combat at close quarters, and conduct raids and even helicopter insertions against enemy camps.

Expanding Ranks and Conducting High-Stakes Combat Operations

Although they initially received nearly all of their training from foreigners, Danab's own commandos are now responsible for handling a majority of the training of new recruits in the 2020s. Those recruits come in batches of about 350 at a time, as necessary, to replenish and slowly grow the ranks of their unit. By all accounts, the trainees within Danab's ranks have proven more than able to pick up on the hard lessons supplied to them, first by Bancroft, and then by the US Navy SEALs and other military advisors. From their start as a small platoon, the group's numbers have since swelled into a full-on brigade, with an estimated unit strength of around two thousand troops at a given time. The United States wants it to be even bigger, eventually reaching a size of three to four thousand. With that increase in size has come an increase in direct involvement from the United States. Now, the United States Special Operations Command's Africa section and the United States Africa Command maintain a direct presence at Baledogle Airfield, sending their own elite instructors to work alongside contractors in training the next generation of Danab troops. Their garrison and headquarters at Baledogle have been significantly expanded, to the point that Danab now runs what is functionally its own command center, coordinating its own activities across Somalia. The Danab Brigade's operations are shrouded in mystery, partly owing to the secret and intense nature of many of their operations, and partly to the communications blackout that still exists over much of modern Somalia. But it is known that Danab began its work quickly after its first few platoons graduated from training. In 2017, Danab operators were on the ground alongside members of SEAL Team Six during a raid on a part of the Shebelle River called Barii, pursuing an al-Shabaab leader colloquially known as Mahad Karate. The mission was unsuccessful, and claimed the life of a Navy SEAL, Senior Chief Petty Officer Kyle Milliken. Two other SEALs were wounded, while none of the accompanying Danab commandos were hit in the firefight. Danab did not seem to bear the blame for the killed and wounded SEALs after the operation; in fact, it was not long afterward that the US began advocating for an expanded version of the brigade. In the following years, Danab launched regular self-run operations against al-Shabaab, across a broad swath of territory in Somalia’s central and southern reaches. Frequently, they are joined by US close air support, artillery fire, and joint terminal attack controllers on the ground. Over the years, Danab’s combat medics have gotten markedly more proficient in their work, saving lives and allowing commandos to return to the fight. The commandos have also gotten very good at responding to al-Shabaab’s particular combat approach, including its surprise attacks in the savannah and its use of truck bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, and waves of suicide bombers. Since the start of the 2020s, Danab has been engaged in a broadening offensive against al-Shabaab across a specific section of Somalia’s territory. According to Foreign Policy, the group has been able to clear roughly ninety percent of al-Shabaab targets in that area since mid-2022, and in late 2023, Danab dismantled al-Shabaab control over three districts in the Somali province of Galmudug. Danab has led the liberation of well over 100 towns and villages across Somalia, a figure that clearly distinguishes them as the only group within Somalia that is able to perform operations on that scale.

Strategic Limitations and Implications for Somalia's Future

Danab has taken heavy losses in the fight with al-Shabaab; a 2023 training class, for example, was rushed across Somalia just after graduation to replenish two battalions that had seen over a hundred Danab commandos killed the month prior. But for the soldiers of Danab, that risk will endure whether they go to the front lines or not. The group is adept at working jointly with local militias, who are, at times, the only other meaningful force willing to fight against al-Shabaab. The rest of the Somali military is often poorly trained, whereas the militias in the countryside tend to be much more strongly motivated to take part in operations that will protect their homes, their children, and their communities. Danab has been able to stay aloof from the politics of Mogadishu, and avoid being used as a pawn in the power struggles there, in part by emphasizing their close relationship with the US and their status as the only real military force that can act as a bulwark against al-Shabaab. They have been able to achieve their combat success without the fancy weaponry or even the body armor of most global special operators. With some exceptions, Danab operatives are not armed with much better than standard AK-47s, and though their stocks of equipment are improving, they represent the idea of doing more with less. They rely on US intelligence and military advisors to figure out where, when, and why to attack, but by and large, it is Danab on the front lines getting the work done. US operators take part only rarely, and are typically not present alongside the group’s smaller units as they move across the countryside. However, while the Danab Brigade has been largely successful in its combat operations against al-Shabaab, the group is often forced to watch helplessly as much of its work is undone by the terror group after Danab moves on. Fierce as they are, the Danab Brigade is just a brigade of some two thousand troops, meaning that they do not have the strength by themselves to protect the targets that they seize, or hold the territory that they capture. Instead, that is the work of the regular Somali military and, at times, forces set up by the UN to help assist with Somalia’s internal crisis. But those regular troops and UN-backed forces are simply not capable of holding out against al-Shabaab in force. Danab is the tip of the spear in Somalia, but the rest of the spear remains fragile. Until that changes, Danab’s victories will often be fleeting. Danab's standing inside Somalia is also nowhere near as firmly entrenched as the unit would like it to be, hindered by a lack of security inside Somalia and concerns over the reliability of long-term American support. In Somalia itself, Danab is empowered by a government in Mogadishu that is managing to survive, but it is not strong. If that government becomes too weak to exert its influence, Danab risks disintegration. In terms of American involvement, Danab exists at the mercy of political realities in Washington, where shifting priorities could jeopardize the project's funding. Yet, for as long as they operate, Danab appears driven to carry on with their work, liberating Somalia kilometer-by-kilometer. During a 2022 embed, BBC reporter Andrew Harding observed a Danab platoon that killed some sixty al-Shabaab fighters in a day-long battle, pushing several hundred more out of a town called Bukure. For the first time in generations, Somalis liberated from al-Shabaab control are able to live in relative confidence that they won’t be threatened again, protected by a homegrown Somali force. In many ways, Danab is proof of concept that a multi-clan, Western-backed, meritocratic organization can exist within Somalia. If Somalia is ever going to chart a real path toward a better future, it is likely to be Danab that leads the way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the special forces in Somalia?

The special forces in Somalia are the Danab Brigade, an elite unit made up of Somalis and directly loyal to the Somali National Army, armed with the best weapons foreign aid can buy and a distinctive sky-blue beret, with training taken from American Navy SEALs, operating across the deserts of Somalia to counter the threat of al-Shabaab.

Did the Navy SEALs fight in Mogadishu?

Although the provided context does not directly mention Navy SEALs fighting in Mogadishu, it is widely known that US forces, including special operations units, were involved in the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, which was a part of the broader US-led intervention in Somalia's civil war, aiming to stabilize the country and support the United Nations' humanitarian efforts.

Why did the US get involved in the Syrian civil war?

The US involvement in the Syrian civil war began in response to the Arab Spring protests in 2011, which escalated into a full-blown civil war, with the US aiming to support pro-democracy forces and counter the influence of extremist groups, while also addressing the humanitarian crisis and stabilizing the region, although the context provided does not directly relate to Somalia's special forces.

How many Delta Force operators were killed in Somalia?

The context provided does not specify the exact number of Delta Force operators killed in Somalia, but it is known that during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, 18 American servicemen were killed, including members of the Delta Force and other special operations units, with many more wounded, in a fierce battle against Somali militiamen.

What is the Danab in Somalia?

The Danab Brigade is an elite special forces unit within the Somali National Army, established with the support of the United States to counter the threat of al-Shabaab and other terrorist groups in Somalia, trained at the Counter Insurgency Terrorism and Stability Operations Training Centre in Nanyuki, Kenya, and equipped with advanced weaponry and a distinctive sky-blue beret.

Were the green berets in Somalia?

While the context does not directly mention the presence of Green Berets in Somalia, it is known that US special operations forces, including Green Berets, have been involved in training and advising Somali forces, including the Danab Brigade, as part of the US effort to build the capacity of the Somali National Army and counter terrorist groups in the region.

Does Somalia have fighter jets?

The context provided does not mention Somalia having fighter jets, and it is widely known that the Somali National Army's military capabilities are limited, with the country relying heavily on international support and assistance to counter security threats, including the provision of air power by partner nations.

Is there a US military base in Somalia?

While the context does not directly mention a US military base in Somalia, it is known that the US has a military presence in the country, with US forces operating in Somalia to support the Somali National Army and conduct counterterrorism operations against al-Shabaab and other extremist groups, although the exact nature and extent of this presence are not publicly disclosed.