A military cooperation between Somalia’s army with the United Arab Emirates has come to a conclusion. Meaning the responsibility of training, salary payments as well control of the soldiers will rest on the shoulders of the Somalian government.
The African Union peacekeeping mission, AMISOM, has already started the withdrawal of troops from the horn of Africa.
The European Union has now stepped in, commending Somalia in taking the lead to provide its own security and implement reform in conjunction with the National Security Architecture agreed on back in April 2017.
The EU High Representative and Vice President, Federica Mogherini stated the bloc’s full support and commitment to Somalia’s security while meeting Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire.
Ms. Mogherini carefully described how the transition plan for Somalia’s security, if implemented, could pave the way for economic reforms in the country and set a clear political roadmap to elections scheduled for 2020.
Ahead of the Somalia Security High-Level meeting in Brussels which will bring together a delegation from Somalia, the European Union, AMISOM and Troop Contributing Countries alongside international partners supporting the nation’s Transition Plan.
Some international donors have been pressuring Somalia to speed up the reforming process of its armed forces. They went as far as to describe it as being under ”extremely weak command and control”.
Neba Benson,
BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst