MOGADISHU(Halbeeg News)-Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has vacated Jalle Siyad military base in Mogadishu on Thursday.
The handover ceremony was attended by Somali deputy prime minister, Mahdi Mohamed Guled, Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Ambassador Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira, senior defence officials from SNA, AMISOM and representatives from friendly nations such as Turkey.
The evacuation of the base by the peacekeeping troops will make an end to their ten years occupation in the facility after contingents from Burundi settled as part of the international forces backing the transitional federal government in 2008.
The Somali government said it would refurbish the base which was first established in 1975 as a training academy for Somali armed forces.
The deputy prime minister, Mahdi Mohamed Guled who thanked AMISOM for the handover said the base would be significant as far as the security of the capital and its surroundings is concerned.
Senior officials from the Somali national army who were also present at the ceremony reiterated their commitment to take over the strategic base that as well trained senior military officials from the continent before the collapse of the central government in the early 1990s.
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