MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News) – Somalia announced that it will probe allegations that recruits of the Somalia National Army participated alongside the Eritrean army in the Tigray region.
In a statement, Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble appointed a high-level government commission of inquiry tasked to investigation complaints by Somali parents who claimed their sons were deployed in Tigray region.
Defense chief Hassan Hussein Haji, Interior Minister Mukhtar Hussein Afrah and Army Chief of Staff Odawa Yusuf Rageh are among those selected to be on the commission.
The appointment comes two days after Somali parents went to streets to protest to demand the government disclose the whereabouts of their sons who were allegedly taken to Eritrea for military training.
UN report alleged that recruits of the Somalia National Army participated alongside the Eritrean army in the Tigray region.
The report further confirms the plight of various families who claimed that their sons were recruited to go to Ethiopia but never came back.
The report on the soldiers, which the Mogadishu government denied engaging in the conflict, also stated that it had a presence around the city of Aksum
The Somali government last Thursday again strongly denied that its forces fought in Tigray region, but confirmed the presence of Somalian forces in Eritrea.
Somali Information Minister Osman Dubbe told a news conference in Mogadishu after the protests: “No Somali soldier is fighting in Tigray, no Somali soldier has been captured in Tigray, and no Somali soldier was in Axum.”
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