MOGADISHU, Somalia – Young Somali soldiers who have been training in neighboring Eritrea are beginning to return in the coming weeks, it has emerged, weeks after their families raised concerns, and some claimed they had been taken to Ethiopia to fight in the Tigray War .
The Eritrean troops have assisted the Ethiopian national defense forces [ENDF] in the Tigray region, where they faced the Tigray People’s Liberation Front [TPLF] in a war that has been condemned by members of the international community.
Last week, Eritrea agreed to withdraw its troops from the Tigray region following pressure from the international community. The troops, Asmara said, have helped ENDF restore order in Tigray after the TPLF allegedly fired missiles from Mekele at Asmara.
New reports show that Somali troops trained in Eritrea are beginning to return home to join various Somali national armies. [SNA] units across the country. It is not clear who pays the troops, as most of the soldiers are paid by the international partners.
According to impeccable sources, the soldiers are undergoing biometric registration and are expected to return upon completion, according to some of the soldiers who called their relatives. Some other units that have not finished training are likely to continue training.
Meanwhile, the soldiers were also asked to expect visits from senior Somali government officials. Outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo visited the troops at least once when he visited Eritrea in recent weeks, according to those who had know-how.
The training program in Eritrea came to light in January, after unconfirmed reports from social media suggested that Somali troops had been killed in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. The reports showed that these soldiers were allied with Eritrean and Ethiopian federal forces confronting Tigray fighters in the regional conflict.
Several sources with direct knowledge of the program – three Somali officials and a foreign diplomat – confirmed to VOA that Somali troops have been training in neighboring Eritrea since 2019.
All sources spoke on condition of anonymity, with officials noting that they were not authorized to speak to the news media. The sources differed on the number of Somali troops who have been in Eritrea; the range was 3,000 to 7,000 recruits.
Somalia’s information minister, Osman Abukar Dubbe, said in January that some Somali soldiers were training in Eritrea. But he told the state media, “the rumors and the fictitious, politicized reports that Somali troops are trained abroad participating in [the] Tigray War [are] unjustified. ”
AXADLETM
