PM Roble pledges to trace "missing" Somali soldiers in Eritrea

MOGADISHU, Somalia - After street protests in parts of the country, Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble has pledged to help in tracing thousands of soldiers who are believed to be training in Eritrea, despite their families being kept in darkness.

For the past several months, families of the young families have been tasking the government to give full information on the whereabouts of these young troops, with authorities often dismissing their claims that they may have participated in the Tigray war.

But PM Roble has now constituted a team to investigate their whereabouts before giving a report got the implementation. It's believed that the number could be between 5,000 to 6,000 according to that privy to the training.

Reports published by the United Nations Special Rapporteur to Eritrea claimed the Somali soldiers were smuggled to Ethiopia where they engaged in the Tigray war, with some sources claiming hundreds of them may have been kidnapped or killed in Axum and other parts of Ethiopia.

The committee will be chaired by defence minister Hassan Hussein Haji and its members will include the interior minister, Somalia’s ambassador to Ethiopia and the commander of Somalia’s army.

Already, the opposition coalition led by former Presidents Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has welcomed the idea of investigating the whereabouts of these young soldiers, some of who are yet to formally join the army.

But some opposition politicians expressed reservations, arguing that the panel includes ministers from the accused government and suggesting that they cannot be trusted to produce an impartial report.

On February 16, Voice of America's [VoA] Somali service reported that the idea of training Somali military recruits in Eritrea was first floated in September 2018, when President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo visited the country.

VOA indicated that the training was largely secret and independent of the command of the Somali National Army.

Earlier this year, the Somali government denied reports that its military recruits were taking part in fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Ethiopia also denied reports that Somali soldiers were fighting alongside its troops in Tigray.

Top Somalia officials led by Information Minister Osman Abukar Dubbe have repeatedly denied claims that the soldiers were deployed to Tigray. However, he concedes that indeed, there are soldiers training in Eritrea.

A Somali intellectual, who sought anonymity for fear of reprisal, believes the issue is more complex and the right people ‘may not be speaking for the trainees, Daily Nation reported.

“In Somalia, the recruitment process generally goes through strict subjective assessment,” he said.

“It is known that when a potential person is to be recruited for the army, he or she must be endorsed by a clan elder, a legislator or both.”

He said doubts have been raised because traditional elders or lawmakers are not demanding to know the whereabouts of the ‘allegedly missing youths’.

GAROWE ONLINE