Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud visited the cadet training camps in Eritrea accompanied by his Eritrean counterpart Isaias Afwerki on Monday. His remarks were accompanied by an appreciation of the security partnership between Somalia and Eritrea and their continued support of the fight against international terrorism.
However, neither President provided specifics on the cadets’ return to their home country to join in military activities. According to a military source, Eritrea-trained Somali forces are playing an important role in ongoing military operations in Somalia’s central areas.
As stated by the Ministry of Information, during the last two months, military offensives in Galmudug and Hirshabelle provinces in central Somalia have killed 1,650 al-Shabab fighters and injured over 550 others.
The first set of these forces, totaling 5,000, was quietly despatched to Eritrea for training in 2019. Many Somalis were worried about the training, thinking that some of the troops might be employed in Ethiopia’s Tigray war.Â
The soldiers parents pressure led to requests for their repatriation. Past Somali administrations had accused Eritrea of supplying weapons to anti-government Islamist insurgents. Asmara has repeatedly denied this, saying the accusations were concocted by its enemy Ethiopia.
In 2007, Eritrea even walked out of the East African bloc IGAD in protest as Ethiopian forces entered Somalia to fight militants. In central Somalia, the army and allied clan-based militias launched a military campaign last year that seized significant swathes of land from the militants, but has had mixed results since then. While government forces have captured several major towns, al Shabaab has reclaimed some territory and conducted deadly raids on military bases.