A huge number of somalis fought in WW1 in Europe

Som

VIP
Interesting. About 2000 somalis fought in the tirailleur somalis french colonial regiment in WW1. Most of them were young volunteers from british Somaliland , Djibouti and to a lesser extent italian Somalia. The harsh conditions in northern somalia during the Sayyid's struggle forced many to leave the country. Many somalis joined the french army in Djiboutii and were sent to fight against germans at Verdun (France) and many other famous battles in WW1. Initially somalis worked as trench cleaners(killing enemy soldiers after conquering trenches) but Frenchs soon realized our worth and used somali soldiers in combat. Many of them were decorated and became highly appreciated after the war. In WW2 the somali battalion also participated in the liberation of France and fought against nazis.
The somali battalion also included arabs, comorians and soldiers from Madagascar.

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Som

VIP
2K seems like a small number but it's a lot considering that the Somaliland had about 150K people
 
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