President Joe Biden has ordered the reestablishment of a US troop presence in Somalia to help local authorities combat the Al-Shabaab militant group, a senior American official told reporters Monday.
The move reverses an order from Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, who in late 2020 pulled nearly all US forces from the East African nation as he sought to wind down US military engagements abroad during his final weeks in office. Biden “approved a request from the Defense Department to reposition US forces in East Africa in order to reestablish a small persistent US military presence in Somalia,” the official said.
Fewer than 500 troops will be involved, the official said, adding that it will “take a little bit of time to reach that” level in Somalia.
That is slightly smaller than the original footprint of 750 US soldiers who spent years in the country conducting operations against Al-Shabaab, but were then removed under Trump and rebased in neighboring countries Kenya and Djibouti. In December 2020, just before he left office, Trump directed the withdrawal from Somalia “against the advice of senior US military leadership,” the official said.
“Since then Al-Shabaab… has unfortunately only grown stronger,” the official added. The official suggested that Biden’s decision had more to do with the security of US forces than with the election on Sunday of a new Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, after more than a year of political instability and a drought crisis. Somalian leaders over recent years have been constant in their support for cooperation with the US military in battling Islamic extremists, the official said, adding that Washington remains confident the new administration will continue to do so.—AFP
