MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) – Pressure is mounting on the Somali government amid allegations that Somali troops have been sent to fight in the deadly Tigray conflict in neighboring Ethiopia.
Mothers have held rare demonstrations in the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, and elsewhere, demanding to know the fate of their children who were originally sent to Eritrea for military training. They fear that their children have been deployed to the Tigray region, where Ethiopian troops have been fighting Tigray children since November, in a conflict that threatens to destabilize the Horn of Africa.
“I heard that our children who were sent to Eritrea for military training were taken and their responsibility transferred to (Ethiopian Prime Minister) Abiy Ahmed to fight for him,” said Fatuma Moallim Abdulle, the mother of the 20-year-old soldier. . Ahmed Ibrahim Jumaleh, told The Associated Press.
“According to the information I gathered, our children were taken directly to Mekele city,” the capital of the Tigray region, she said. “You can understand how I feel. I’m a mother who carried her child in my womb for nine months, it’s my blood and flesh.”
Ethiopia this week denied reports of the presence of Somali soldiers in Tigray, and continued to deny the presence of Eritreans.
Abiy made peace in 2018 with neighboring Eritrea, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize. According to critics, Ethiopian and Eritrean forces banded together in the conflict against a common enemy in the now-fleeing Tigray leaders, who dominated the Ethiopian government for nearly three decades before Abiy took office and began the regional peace process that included Somalia. .
Somali President Abdullahi Mohamed Abdullahi has been asked by the head of the country’s parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, Abdulqadir Ossoble Ali, to investigate allegations of involvement in the Tigray conflict.
“We have the oversight of what our government does,” Ali wrote in the letter, which was circulated to the media.
And the former deputy director of Somalia’s intelligence agency, Ismael Dahir Osman, said: ‘This is a question worth asking why these soldiers are not back home after more than a year.
Somalia’s Information Minister Osman Abokor Dubbe this week denied “propaganda” that Somali soldiers who were outside the country for training were involved in the Tigray conflict.
“There are no Somali troops being requested by the Ethiopian government to fight for them and fight in Tigray,” he said.
The issue came up at a sensitive time in Somalia. The country is set to hold national elections in the coming weeks, but two federal states have refused to participate and the opposition accuses the president of trying to proceed with a partial vote.
“The parents of the children are constantly calling us and they have no contact with their children, and some of them have been told that their sons have died,” opposition presidential candidate Abdurahman Abdishakur Warsame told the Associated Press. ‘According to the information we receive, the boys were taken to northern Ethiopia after the war. We are asking for an independent national commission to investigate the matter, and if it is proven to be true, it will amount to treason on a national scale. ”