Mogadishu – Somalia’s new president has said soldiers training in Eritrea will come home after worried parents for months feared they had been deployed to the war-torn Ethiopian region of Tigray.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met parents of soldiers on Wednesday evening, a day after he returned from visiting Somali troops in training camps in Eritrea.
When asked about their fate, the head of state elected on May 15 replied that the authorities were working on bringing them home.
“They will be returned to the country safely,” he said, without saying how many or a specific timeline.
Since war erupted in northern Ethiopia in November 2020, rumours have swirled in Somalia that Somali soldiers could have been sent there to fight.
Families without news of their relatives in the army protested several times last year during the presidency of Mohamud’s predecessor Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as Farmajo, demanding information about their whereabouts.
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The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, in June last year referred to “reports that Somali soldiers were moved from military training camps in Eritrea to the frontline in Tigray, where they accompanied Eritrean troops” supporting Ethiopian federal forces against rebels.
Members of the opposition, including Mohamud at the time, demanded explanations from the Somali government.
Mohamud made no mention of the war in Ethiopia on Wednesday, but said he understood that relatives wanted news.
“I know the pain parents may suffer and especially when they are unaware of their children at large,” he said.
“I have provided money to buy credit so that each one of them will be able to communicate with their parents either today or tomorrow.”
In late May, Farmajo said his government had sent around 5 000 soldiers to train in Eritrea. He said their training ended last year but he had decided to delay their return to avoid disrupting parliamentary and presidential elections.
In his election campaign, Mohamud pledged to bring them home.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/@AbdiweliDuale1
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