OP
With the arms embargo that only ended in December '23, State kept control of weapons that were loaned to Somalis and audited them routinely. At the end of the projected duty life, they replaced them with whatever was available and on contract, hence AK 56s replaced with the Bulgarian M-75s, and some export Galils. When they were exchanged, it was one for one; any missing (there weren't many) required an investigation and either justification or consequences (usually jail and/or retraining).
In Africa, wooden stock rifles seem to hold up better than synthetics - the Bulgarian M-75s were not better than the aging AK 56s that they replaced. We used South African firearms trainers who were really familiar with all AK variants.
None of the AKs (or Galils, for that matter) were equivalent to M4s in accuracy or shootability, IME, but the AKs were more durable with poor maintenance and more tolerant of really awful (old, poorly stored) ammo. Many of the M-75s would barely group 4 or 5 inches at 25 meters from a bench - some were much better, but not many.
But I really liked the 7.62x39 cartridge with good ammo.
In Africa, wooden stock rifles seem to hold up better than synthetics - the Bulgarian M-75s were not better than the aging AK 56s that they replaced. We used South African firearms trainers who were really familiar with all AK variants.
None of the AKs (or Galils, for that matter) were equivalent to M4s in accuracy or shootability, IME, but the AKs were more durable with poor maintenance and more tolerant of really awful (old, poorly stored) ammo. Many of the M-75s would barely group 4 or 5 inches at 25 meters from a bench - some were much better, but not many.
But I really liked the 7.62x39 cartridge with good ammo.
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I did see an old (reputed) warlord with a beat-up South African R-1 (FAL clone) that I would have enjoyed.
