Somalia: ICITAP Assists in Procurement of New Uniforms for Somali Police Units

On April 4, the ICITAP-Somalia mission provided an update on its provision of new uniforms and boots for 160 Somali Police Force (SPF) officers across mentored tactical units and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams. Officers from the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) security element, Surveillance Support Team (SST) and EOD were provided with two new sets of uniform and one pair of boots per officer. The organization and provision of the items was coordinated through the Counterterrorism and Intelligence Division (CTID) Chief of Staff (CoS) and Logistics Officer (LO), along with the EOD LO in conjunction with the ICITAP Counterterrorism Advisory Team (CTAT) logistics advisor. The Somali LOs were responsible for collating information regarding uniform and boot sizes and coordinating with local suppliers in order to arrange for the production and delivery of the uniforms. The SPF officers liaised closely with the CTAT logistics advisor regarding delivery times and payment for items as they arrived in different batches. This was a good example of the improvement on behalf of the SPF teams in organizing and accounting for logistical support and one step closer to self-sustainability of the SPF in terms of maintaining operational readiness of units. In Somalia, ICITAP works with the support of the Department of State Bureau of Counterterrorism and the FBI.