MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News) – US defense officials said Pentagon operation mission in Somalia is likely to take years to achieve than previously thought.
US Africa Command officials told the CNN that the US training mission is likely not to be completed until 2026 but is making progress on the ground by helping training Somali special forces known as Danab to combat the al-Shabaab threat.
“The bottom line is we’re taking formations and fighters and leaders off the battlefield. And that is affecting the network,” Brig. Gen. William West, the deputy director of operations for Africa Command, told CNN in a statement.
The development follows as President Donald Trump signed an executive order extending a presidential declaration of a national emergency concerning Somalia for another year.
According to CCN reports, the commitment to carry on the operation in the horn of the African nation comes after the US President has signaled a desire to reduce US troop levels across the globe and as the administration is in the process of withdrawing forces from Syria.
The Pentagon has about 500 to 600 personnel in Somalia according to US Africa Command.
US military advisers have also been in Somalia since 2013, the effort has gotten a significant boost under the Trump Administration, which volunteered to undertake the Danab advisory mission in 2017 in addition to expanding drone strikes, and in December reopened the American diplomatic mission in Mogadishu for the first time since 1991.
Trump authorized the military to carry out precision strikes targeting al-Shabaab in March 2017. Prior to that, the US military was authorized to conduct airstrikes only in defense of advisers on the ground.
Somalia’s Prime Minister Hassan Khayre who is on a visit in Washington meets National Security Adviser John Bolton in the White House.
The premier who has been praised by American diplomats and USAID officials for his efforts to reform Somalia’s economy and security forces, also visited the Pentagon on Thursday to meet Undersecretary for Defense, David Norquist to discuss the security situation in Somalia.
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