US contemplates sending Special Forces to Somalia

WASHINGTON, US - The United States could be sending a contingent of Special Forces to Somalia, it has emerged, over eight months after the Department of Defense repositioned over 700 soldiers from the Horn of Africa nation which has been struggling with instability.

Former President Donald Trump repositioned most of the US troops to Kenya and Djibouti as part of his long-term plan of "cost-cutting" but he failed to clinch his seat, losing to Joe Biden, a Democrat. The US has been integral in pushing for Somalia's stability.

With reports on the planned deployment of the US troops to Somalia, US Africa Command boss Gen. Stephen Townsend did not directly confirm the reports but pledged to continue helping the Horn on Africa nation in fighting violent extremism.

"There's really no denying our fairly sudden repositioning out of Somalia earlier this year has introduced new layers of risk and complexity to our mission there," Townsend said perhaps in the strongest hint that the soldiers will come back. "What we're trying to manage that risk and complexity."

The New York Times reported that Biden has suggested to the Department of Defense to redeploy American troops to Somalia to help in the Al-Shabaab war, but the request is yet to be approved. The American troops were responsible for training and equipping of Danab Special Forces.

Already, the US has deployed Special Forces to northeastern Kenya where they will work closely with the Kenya Defense Forces [KDF] in degrading the Al-Shabaab threat. The troops started reporting as early as last week according to military sources in Kenya.

According to Townsend, Al-Shabaab is "the world's largest, best-financed, most kinetically active arm of Al-Qaida". "We see threats there to African stability. We see threats in Somalia to regional stability. We even see potential threats there to the US homeland."

Al-Shabaab controls large swathes of rural central and southern Somalia but its capability has been significantly reduced due to military operations in the country. The group targets people believed or accused of being US spies in the country.

"We've given our recommendations to our civilian leaders. And we're waiting on them to make their judgments on those recommendations," Townsend said. "al-Shabaab still enjoys a lot of freedom of action on the territory. You can really feel the atmosphere of the insecurity there."

The federal government of Somalia has been asking for help from the US in the Al-Shabaab war, which has taken almost a decade. The militants collect taxes from locals and they are hell-bent to dethrone the fragile UN-backed Somalia administration.

GAROWE ONLINE