Somalia denies troop involvement in Ethiopian Tigray conflict

By Mohammed Dhaysane

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AA) - Somalia’s presidential spokesman said Tuesday that reports of Somali troops trained in Eritrea being involved in Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict are nothing but “rumors.”

Abdikarin Ali Kaar, who held a news conference in the national capital of Mogadishu, said 5,000 “missing” Somali trainees have been found and the government is working to return them to Somalia.

During President Hassan Sheikh Mahamud's visit to Eritrea, he met the soldiers and the troops will return to the country to do the job for which they are trained, he said.

A 2021 UN report claimed that Somali soldiers, who were trained in Eritrea, crossed the Eritrean border with Ethiopia alongside Eritrean troops and took part in the Tigray conflict.

After Mahamud returned from Eritrea, he met the parents of the cadets and promised to bring their children home.

Regarding Mahamud’s recent trip to Türkiye, Kaar characterized the visit as “fruitful” and successful.

“The president went to Türkiye for four days of a state visit and met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan where they discussed strengthening the bilateral relations between the two countries and Türkiye’s support to Somalia, especially in the security sector,” he said.

On his visit to Kenya, Kaar said Mahamud and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta agreed to respect each other’s territorial integrity.

The previous Somali government of former President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo accused Kenya of interference in Somalia’s internal affairs.

Kenya has denied the allegations.

“The president also visited Djibouti where he addressed the Djibouti parliament and announced that the relations between two countries are inseparable,” he said.