An askari (from

Somali Somali may refer to: Horn of Africa * Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region ** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis ** Somali culture ** Somali cuisine ** Somali language, a Cushitic language ** Somali ...

, Swahili and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, , meaning "soldier" or "military", which also means "police" in the Somali language) was a local soldier serving in the armies of the European colonial powers in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, particularly in the

African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes ( sw, Maziwa Makuu; rw, Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in th ...

Northeast Africa Northeast Africa, or ''Northeastern Africa'' or Northern East Africa as it was known in the past, is a geographic regional term used to refer to the countries of Africa situated in and around the Red Sea. The region is intermediate between North ...

and

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Co ...

. The word is used in this sense in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

, as well as in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, Italian,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Portuguese. In French, the word is used only in reference to native troops outside the French colonial empire. The designation is still in occasional use today to informally describe

police The police are a Law enforcement organization, constituted body of Law enforcement officer, persons empowered by a State (polity), state, with the aim to law enforcement, enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citize ...

gendarmerie Wrong info! --> A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...

and

security guards A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) from a variety ...

. During the period of the European colonial empires in Africa, locally recruited soldiers designated as askaris were employed by the Italian, British, Portuguese, German and Belgian colonial armies. They played a crucial role in the conquest of the various colonial possessions, and subsequently served as garrison and internal security forces. During both World Wars, askari units also served outside their colonies of origin, in various parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. In

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

the term refers to former members of the liberation movements who defected to the

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

government security forces.

Etymology

''Askari'' is a

loan word A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...

from the Persian (), meaning "soldier". The Persian word is a derivation from the

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle P ...

word , meaning "army". The word "lashkar" also is the root of the word Lascar for a South Asian soldier or a person of South Asian origin. Words for "(a regular) soldier" derived from these words are found in

Azeri Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are the second-most nume ...

, Indonesian, Malay,

, Swahili, Turkish and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

, the askaris were organised into the ''

Force Publique The ''Force Publique'' (, "Public Force"; nl, Openbare Weermacht) was a gendarmerie and military force in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885 (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of ...

''. This combined military and police force was commanded by white Belgian officers and both native and white non commissioned officers.

British colonies

The Imperial British East Africa Company raised units of askaris from among the

Swahili people The Swahili people ( sw, WaSwahili) comprise mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab and Comorian ethnic groups inhabiting the Swahili coast, an area encompassing the Zanzibar archipelago and mainland Tanzania's seaboard, littoral Kenya, northern Mozambique, ...

, the

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

ese and

Somalis The Somalis ( so, Soomaalida 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒆𐒖, ar, صوماليون) are an ethnic group native to the Horn of Africa who share a common ancestry, culture and history. The Lowland East Cushitic Somali language is the shared ...

. There was no official uniform, nor standardised weaponry. Many of the askaris campaigned in their native dress. Officers usually wore civilian clothes. From 1895 the British askaris were organised into a regular, disciplined and uniformed force called the East African Rifles, later forming part of the multi-battalion

King's African Rifles The King's African Rifles (KAR) was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from Britain's various possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions within ...

. The designation of "askari" was retained for locally recruited troops in the King's African Rifles, smaller military units and police forces in the colonies until the end of colonial rule in Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda during the period 1961–63. After independence, the term ''Askari'' continued to be used to refer to soldiers in former British colonies.

German colonies

The German Colonial Army ('' Schutztruppe'') of the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

employed native troops with European officers and NCOs in its colonies. The main concentration of such locally recruited troops was in

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; german: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mo ...

(now

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

), formed in 1881 after the transfer of the ''Wissmanntruppe'' (raised in 1889 to suppress the Abushiri Revolt) to German imperial control. The first askaris formed in German East Africa were raised by DOAG (''Deutsche Ost-Afrika Gesellschaft''—the

German East Africa Company The German East Africa Company (german: Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft, abbreviated DOAG) was a chartered colonial organization which brought about the establishment of German East Africa, a territory which eventually comprised the area ...

) in about 1888. Originally drawn from Sudanese mercenaries, the German askaris were subsequently recruited from the Wahehe and Angoni tribal groups. They were harshly disciplined but well paid and highly trained by German cadres who were themselves subject to a rigorous selection process. Prior to 1914 the basic ''Schutztruppe'' unit in Southeast Africa was the ''Feldkompanie'' comprising seven or eight German officers and NCOs with between 150 and 200 askaris (usually 160)—including two machine gun teams. Such small independent commands were often supplemented by tribal irregulars or ''

Ruga-Ruga Ruga-Ruga (sometimes called Rugaruga) were irregular troops in Eastern Africa, often deployed by western colonial forces.Karl WeuleRugaruga in: Heinrich Schnee (Hrsg.); '' Deutsches Koloniallexikon''. Band III, Berlin: Quelle & Meyer, 1920, S. 19 ...

''. They were successfully used in German East Africa where 11,000 askaris, porters and their European officers, commanded by

Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (20 March 1870 – 9 March 1964), also called the Lion of Africa (german: Löwe von Afrika), was a general in the Imperial German Army and the commander of its forces in the German East Africa campaign. For four ye ...

, managed to fight a successful guerilla campaign against numerically superior British, Portuguese and Belgian colonial forces until the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

in 1918. The

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...

and pre-war

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

provided pension payments to the German askaris. Due to interruptions during the worldwide depression and World War II, the parliament of the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

(West Germany) voted in 1964 to fund the back pay of the askaris still alive. The West German embassy at

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

identified approximately 350 ex-askaris and set up a temporary cashiers office at Mwanza on Lake Victoria. Only a few claimants could produce the certificates given to them in 1918; others provided pieces of their old uniforms as proof of service. The banker who had brought the money came up with an idea: each claimant was handed a broom and ordered in German to perform the

manual of arms A manual of arms was an instruction book for handling and using weapons in formation, whether in the field or on parade. Such manuals were especially important in the matchlock and flintlock eras, when loading and firing was a complex and lengthy ...

. Not one of them failed the test. File:Askari-Ostafrika.jpg, Askari of Ostafrika File:Askari aus Deutsch-Ostafrika (Askari from German East Africa).jpg, Askari in German army uniform, 1915 File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R19361, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Deutsches Feldgeschütz.jpg, Germans and Askari during the East African Campaign File:Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA3049, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Askari beim Übungsschießen.jpg, Askari in training File:Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA7225, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Askari im Kampf.jpg, Askari in action ( Tanga) File:Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA7209, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Askari auf dem Marsch.jpg, Askari on the march ( WWI) File:Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA6369, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Askari.jpg, Askari of Ostafrika File:Deutsch-Ostafrikaner-Ehrenmal in Aumühle.JPG, German-Ostafrika Memorial in Aumühle

Nazi Germany

During World War II, the Germans used the term "askaris" for Red Army, predominantly Russian, deserters and POWs who formed units fighting against the Red Army and in other action on the Eastern front. Western Ukrainian volunteer units like the Nightingale Battalion, Schuma battalions, and the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS were also called ''Askari''. These battalions were used in many operations during World War II. Most of them were either Red Army deserters or anti-communist peasants recruited from Western Ukrainian rural areas under German occupation.

Italian colonies

The Italian army in

Italian East Africa Italian East Africa ( it, Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI) was an Italian colony in the Horn of Africa. It was formed in 1936 through the merger of Italian Somalia, Italian Eritrea, and the newly occupied Ethiopian Empire, conquered in the S ...

recruited

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopi ...

n and subsequently

troops to serve with Italian officers and some NCOs. These forces comprised infantry, cavalry, camel-mounted and light artillery units. Somali personnel were later recruited to serve with Royal Italian Navy ships operating in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

. The Italian askaris (''ascari'') fought in the

Mahdist War The Mahdist War ( ar, الثورة المهدية, ath-Thawra al-Mahdiyya; 1881–1899) was a war between the Mahdist Sudanese of the religious leader Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam (the "Guided On ...

, Battle of Coatit, First Italo–Ethiopian War,

Italian-Turkish War The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War ( tr, Trablusgarp Savaşı, "Tripolitanian War", it, Guerra di Libia, "War of Libya") was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911, to 18 October 1912. As a result o ...

Second Italo-Abyssinian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression which was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Ita ...

and in the World War II East African Campaign.

History

Many of the Askaris in Eritrea were drawn from local Nilotic populations, including

Hamid Idris Awate Hamid Idris Awate (10 April 1910 – 28 May 1962) was the founder of the Eritrean Army (the armed wing of the Eritrean Liberation Front), and a symbol of the Eritrean struggle for independence. Early life in Italian Eritrea Awate was born in 19 ...

, who reputedly had some

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

ancestry. Of these troops, the first Eritrean battalions were raised in 1888 from Muslim and Christian volunteers, replacing an earlier

Bashi-bazouk A bashi-bazouk ( ota, باشی بوزوق , , , roughly "leaderless" or "disorderly") was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, raised in times of war. The army chiefly recruited Albanians and Circassians as bashi-bazouks, but recruits ...

corps of irregulars. The four ''Indigeni'' battalions in existence by 1891 were incorporated into the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops that year. Expanded to eight battalions, the Eritrean ascaris fought with distinction at Serobeti,

Agordat Agordat; also Akordat or Ak'ordat) is a city in Gash-Barka, Eritrea. It was the capital of the former Barka province, which was situated between the present-day Gash-Barka and Anseba regions. History Excavations in Agordat uncovered pottery ...

Kassala Kassala ( ar, كسلا) is the capital of the state of Kassala in eastern Sudan. Its 2008 population was recorded to be 419,030. Built on the banks of the Gash River, it is a market town and is famous for its fruit gardens. Many of its inhabit ...

, Coatit and

Adwa Adwa ( ti, ዓድዋ; amh, ዐድዋ; also spelled Aduwa) is a town and separate woreda in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. It is best known as the community closest to the site of the 1896 Battle of Adwa, in which Ethiopian soldiers defeated Itali ...

and subsequently served in Libya and Ethiopia. Out of a total of 256,000 Italian troops serving in Italian East Africa in 1940, about 182,000 were recruited from Eritrea, Somalia and the recently occupied (1935–36) Ethiopia. When in January 1941, Allied forces invaded Ethiopia in January 1941, most of the locally recruited ascaris deserted. The majority of the Eritrean Ascaris remained loyal until the Italian surrender four months later.

Organisation

Initially the Eritrean Ascaris comprised only infantry battalions, although Eritrean cavalry squadrons ('' Penne di Falco'') and mountain artillery batteries were subsequently raised. By 1922 units of

camel cavalry Camel cavalry, or camelry (french: méharistes, ), is a generic designation for armed forces using camels as a means of transportation. Sometimes warriors or soldiers of this type also fought from camel-back with spears, bows or rifles. Camel ...

called "meharisti" had been added. Those Eritrean camel units were also deployed in Libya after 1932. During the 1930s

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...

added some armored cars units to the Ascari.

Uniforms

Eritrean regiments in Italian service wore high red fezzes with coloured tufts and waist sashes that varied according to each unit. As examples, the 17th Eritrean Battalion had black and white tufts and vertically striped sashes; while the 64th Eritrean Battalion wore both of these items in scarlet and purple. White uniforms were worn for parade (see illustration) with khaki for other duties. The Somali ascari were similarly dressed, though with knee length

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ...

Ranks

The Eritrean and Somali Ascari had the following ranks, from simple soldier to senior non commissioned officer: ''Ascari'' - ''Muntaz (corporal)'' - ''Bulukbasci (lance-sergeant)'' -''Sciumbasci (sergeant)''. The Sciumbasci-capos (staff-sergeants) were the senior Eritrean non-commissioned officers, chosen in part according to their performance in battle. All commissioned officers of the Eritrean Ascari were Italian.

Spanish colonies

As noted above "askari" was normally a designation used in Sub-Saharan Africa. Exceptionally though, the term "askari" was also used by the Spanish colonial government in North-West Africa, in respect not of their regular Moroccan troops (see

regulares The Fuerzas Regulares Indígenas (" Indigenous Regular Forces"), known simply as the Regulares (Regulars), are volunteer infantry units of the Spanish Army, largely recruited in the cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Consisting of indigenous infantr ...

), but of a locally recruited gendarmerie force raised in

Spanish Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

in 1913. They were known as the "Mehal-la Jalifianas". This was the equivalent of the better known Goumiers employed in

French Morocco The French protectorate in Morocco (french: Protectorat français au Maroc; ar, الحماية الفرنسية في المغرب), also known as French Morocco, was the period of French colonial rule in Morocco between 1912 to 1956. The prot ...

. Indigenous members of the

Tropas Nómadas The (Nomad Troops) were an auxiliary regiment to the colonial army in Spanish Sahara (today Western Sahara), from the 1930s until the end of the Spanish presence in the territory in 1975. Composed of Sahrawi tribesmen, the Tropas Nómadas were e ...

or desert police serving in the Spanish

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

were also designated as "askaris", as were the other ranks of the Native Police (''Policia Indígena'') raised in

Melilla Melilla ( , ; ; rif, Mřič ; ar, مليلية ) is an autonomous city of Spain located in north Africa. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was pa ...

in 1909.

Portuguese colonies

In Portuguese West Africa, and most other African colonies of the

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the ...

, local askaris were recruited. These were used to keep the peace in the nation-sized colonies. During the 20th century, all the indigenous troops were merged into a Portuguese colonial army. This military was segregated along lines of race, and until 1960 there were three classes of soldiers: commissioned soldiers (European whites), overseas soldiers (black African "civilizados") and native soldiers (Africans who lived in the Portuguese colonies). These categories were renamed to 1st, 2nd and 3rd class in 1960—which effectively corresponded to the same classification.

Apartheid South Africa

During

, especially during the 1980s, Askari was the term used to describe former members of the liberation movements who came to work for the Security Branch, providing information, identifying and tracing former comrades. A number were also operationally deployed. Former members of the liberation movements became askaris if they defected from the liberation movements of their own accord or if they were arrested or captured. In some cases, attempts were made to ‘turn’ captured uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) or Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA) operatives using both orthodox and unorthodox methods during interrogation, often involving torture. Other askaris were MK operatives who had been abducted by the Security Branch from neighbouring states. Several abductees remain disappeared and are believed to have been killed. The threats of death used to ‘turn’ askaris were not idle. During the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

hearings, amnesty applications revealed that several operatives were killed for steadfastly refusing to co-operate. Askaris were primarily used to infiltrate groups and to identify former comrades with whom they had trained in other countries. At the

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...

hearing in July 1999, Mr Chris Mosiane testified: "In the initial stages askaris were used as police dogs to sniff out insurgents with white SB ecurity Branch membersas their handlers. Black SB were used to monitor the askaris." Askaris were initially treated as informers and were paid from a secret fund. Later, they were integrated into the

South African Police The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...

at the level of

constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

and were paid an SAP salary. While deployed in the regions, they were paid an additional amount, which was usually generated by making false claims to a secret fund. After successful operations they usually received bonuses. The askaris used Vlakplaas as an operational base and resided in the townships where they attempted to maintain their cover as underground MK operatives. Although a few askaris escaped, most were far too frightened to attempt it. At his amnesty hearing, Colonel

Eugene de Kock Eugene Alexander de Kock (born 29 January 1949) is a former South African Police colonel, torturer, and assassin, active under the apartheid government. Nicknamed "Prime Evil" by the press, De Kock was the commanding officer of C10, a counterins ...

testified that he had set up a spy network amongst the askaris and used electronic surveillance. He told the Amnesty Committee that he had also established a disciplinary structure to deal with internal issues and other infractions by askaris and white officers. However, askaris who exceeded their authority in operational situations or criminal matters were seldom punished. Generally askaris were extremely effective. Because of their internal experience of MK structures, they were invaluable in identifying potential suspects, in infiltrating networks, in interrogations and in giving evidence for the state in trials.

Post 2003 Iraq War

Widely deployed Ugandan private security guards are also designated as askari. Guards were to receive $1,000 monthly salary and an $80,000 bonus if shot, but many have complained that the money was not paid or unfair fees assessed. The guards work for recruiting agencies such as Askar Security Services, which are hired by Beowulf International, a receiving company in Iraq, which subcontracts their services to EOD Technologies, an American company hired by the U.S. Department of Defense to provide security guards for Camp Victory in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

. A Beowulf representative said that 400 of the workers "had impressed the US Army with their skill and experience", but complained that some of the workers lacked police or security experience and "didn't even know how to hold a gun". At least eleven other Ugandan recruiters include Dresak International and Connect Financial Services.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Askari
Comando Supremo

African World War II Veterans
* Histoire de la Force Publique (History of the Force Publique) by Lieutenant-General Emile Janssens, Wasmael-Chalier of Namur in 1979
Ascari: I Leoni di Eritrea/Ascari: The Lions of Eritrea.
Eritrea colonial history, Eritrean ascari pictures/photos galleries and videos, historical atlas...
Ascari of Eritrea
Collection of about 200 pictures listed by categories. * Moyd, Michelle
Askari
in

* ttp://sabctrc.saha.org.za/reports.htm Truth and Reconciliation Commission "Final Report" German Army (German Empire) Military history of Africa Military history of German East Africa Swahili words and phrases People of former Italian colonies Combat occupations Military units and formations of Spain Colonial troops Apartheid in South Africa Arabic words and phrases Persian words and phrases