President Joe Biden signed an order Monday to redeploy a whole bunch of US troops to Somalia to counter the Islamic extremist insurgent group al-Shabab, an effort that American navy leaders stated had been hampered by President Donald Trump’s late-term determination to withdraw forces from the nation.
US troops will probably be repositioned from elsewhere in Africa to coach and supply different help to Somali forces of their struggle in opposition to al-Shabab, which is taken into account the biggest and wealthiest affiliate of the al-Qaida extremist organisation.
“Our forces usually are not now, nor will they be, straight engaged in fight operations,” said Pentagon press secretary John Kirby. “The purpose here is to enable a more effective fight against al-Shabab by local forces.”
It’s a reminder that the US remains engaged in the long fight against Islamic extremists around the world, even if the effort has been eclipsed by the war in Ukraine and other matters.
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The decision to station forces again in Somalia, rather than rotate them in and out, is intended “to maximise the protection and effectiveness of our forces and allow them to offer extra environment friendly help to our companions,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson stated in saying the redeployment.
US troops in Somalia will complete “under 500” in response to a senior Biden administration official who spoke on situation of anonymity to transient journalists on the choice.
In addition to coaching Somali forces, American troops can even present safety to personnel from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development as they work with the federal government to emerge from years of turmoil, the official stated.
Trump abruptly ordered the withdrawal of roughly 700 troops from Somalia on the finish of his time period in January 2021, an extension of a broader coverage of looking for to tug the US out of what he derisively known as “endless wars” around the globe.
But navy leaders stated that got here at a value, losing time, cash and momentum as troops needed to rotate in and in another country.
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General Stephen Townsend, head of US Africa Command, advised Congress in March that the rotations, which he known as “commuting to work,” weren’t environment friendly or efficient and put American troops at higher threat.
“In my view, we are marching in place at best. We may be backsliding,” Townsend advised the Senate Armed Forces Committee.
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin requested the deployment “to reestablish a persistent US military presence in Somalia to enable a more effective fight against al-Shabab, which has increased in strength and poses a heightened threat,” an administration official said on condition of anonymity to discuss the plan before the White House announcement.
Biden’s decision to sign the order was first reported by The New York Times, which also said the the president had a approved a Pentagon request for standing authority to target about a dozen suspected leaders of al-Shabab.
The group has killed more than a dozen Americans in East Africa, including three in a January 2020 attack on a base used by US counterterrorism forces in Kenya.
Later that year, the US charged a Kenyan who had been taking flight lessons in the Philippines with planning a 9/11-style hijacking attack on behalf of al-Shabab.
The rebel group has made territorial gains against Somalia’s federal government in recent months, reversing the gains of African Union peacekeepers who once had pushed the militants into remote areas of the country.
Word of the deployment decision came after Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who served as Somalia’s president between 2012 and 2017, was announced on Sunday as the winner of a protracted election.
Somalia began to fall apart in 1991 when warlords ousted dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other. Years of conflict and al-Shabab attacks, along with famine, have shattered the country which has a long, strategic coastline by the Indian Ocean.
American soldiers deployed there in 1992 to stave off a national famine on a peacekeeping mission that lasted until their 1994 withdrawal — about five months after the humiliating “Black Hawk Down” debacle in late 1993 when Somali militiamen shot down two US helicopters; 18 servicemen had been killed within the crash and subsequent rescue try.
