US fails on Somali troops ‘covertly training’ in Eritrea

The Somali troops estimated 5,000 have been sent to Asmara by Fahad Yasin, the former controversial Intelligence chief during Farmajo's regime.

News Keydmedia Online
23 July 2022

MOGADISHU, Somalia - The U.S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken has fired the American ambassador to Eritrea Steven C. Walker over what is believed linked to 5000 thousand of Somali military recruits receiving clandestine training in the country.

The Somali cadets were sent to Eritrea in different times between 2019 and 2020 by Fahad Yasin, the former Intelligence chief without the consent of their families.

They have been trained at four camps in the vacinty of Gergera dam and within the mountains of Debub region in Eritrea, according to Keydmedia' Online's inside sources.

Walker had been appointed as U.S. ambassador to Asmara in December 2019 shortly after the formation of an alliance in East Africa following a tripartite security cooperation deal between Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

The diplomat has been relieved of his duties after failing his main job that was to monitor the new alliance's plans and movements as Washington has a geopolitical and military interest in the region.

The U.S. regretted the failure to obtain the information the large number of the Somali soldiers trained in Eritrea and subsequently deployed to Tigray to fight along with Ethiopian and Eritrean troops at war with TPLF, according to U.N. report in 2021.

Somali government has rejected the U.N. report as baseless and insisted its forces never crossed into Ethiopia and involved in the battle against Tigray rebels.

In November 2021, U.S. imposed fresh sanctions on top Eritrean military commanders their role in the Ethiopian conflict which claimed the lives of thousands of people and millions forced to flee Tigray region to Sudan and within the country.

The U.N. security Council slapped Eritrea with arms embargo in 2009 after dictator Isaias Afwerki sent weapons to Union of Islamic courts in Somalia during their war against Ethiopian soldiers invaded the country in 2016.

KEYDMEDIA ONLINE