Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud held a meeting with a committee representing the parents of Somali soldiers training in Eritrea at the Presidential Palace on Friday.
President Mohamud briefed the parents about the recruits who remained in Eritrea and promised that the government would repatriate them as soon as they completed their training.
advertisements
The President guaranteed the parents that he would keep his promise to bring back the recruits to reunite with their families and relatives.
Mohamud added that the recruits will beย instrumenalย in defeating Al Shabaab.
The parental committee thanked the President for prioritizing their child’s situation and quickly fulfilling his promise, which alleviated their concerns. According to the Villa Somalia, the parents said they were honoured that their child would participate in the fight to liberate the country from Al-Shabaab.
In December, the first group of Somali troops sent to Eritrea for training in 2019 and 2020ย arrived backย in Mogadishu.
The previous Farmajo administrationย sent 5,000 troopsย in a covert training program that was operated by NISA, Somalia’s intelligence agency.
Parents of the recruits feared that their sons were being used as cannon fodder in the Ethiopian government’s war against Tigray, in which Eritrea was allied with Ethiopia.
A UN report in June 2021ย allegedย that the Eritrean-trained Somali recruits took part in hostilities.
The UN Rapporteur report on the human rights situation in Eritrea alleged that d reports that Somali soldiers were moved from military training camps in Eritrea to theย front line in Tigray.
Somalia and Eritrea bothย strongly deniedย the allegations.
Security experts believed President Mohamudย capitalizedย on the recentย peace agreementย -signed by Ethiopia’s federal government and the TPLF rebels that ended two years of intense fighting – to accelerate the repatriation. It was previously reported that Somalia could not bring the recruits home due toย financial constraints.ย
President Mohamudย last met with the parentalย committee in July followingย a trip to Eritrea, where heย visited the recruitsย at their military barracks.
