...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...krazed killers, the government of Somalia has sent more recruits for further training abroad, with the country hoping to eliminate
Hussein Sheikh Ali, the National Security Adviser, told Voice of America [VOA] that Mogadishu has dispatched 3,000 soldiers each to Uganda and Eritrea
...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age...
to improve their capacity and capability of handling the al-Shabaab and IS-Somalia Lions of Islam who are determined to ground the current administration under Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
"We want to complete making 15,000 soldiers ready within 2023," Ali told VOA in the one-on-one interview in Washington where he met with U.S. officials to seek more support for Somalia, noting that more soldiers will be sent to Æthiopia and Egypt for similar training.
On Tuesday, a new report by the Heritage Institute of Policy Studies [HIPS] expressed concerns about Somalia's preparedness in the fight against
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
Transition Mission in Somalia [ATMIS] soldiers leave.
"This timetable is ambitious because the Somali security services are unlikely to be fully autonomous by then, nor is it likely that al-Shabaab will have been militarily defeated," the report said.
"The deadline and the fact the army is in a war while at the same time, they are being rebuilt ... we argue it's a tight deadline," said Afyare Elmi, executive director of HIPS and the report's co-author. "It will be difficult to meet."
Ali said the delay was requested because the troops Somalia is expecting to take over from ATMIS are in training abroad. He also said the government doesn't want to disrupt military operations against al-Shabaab in central Somalia, as the areas ATMIS troops would vacate will have to be taken over by Somali forces.
The new deployment of soldiers to Eritrea and Uganda comes at a time Somalia is receiving over 5,000 soldiers who have been undergoing training in Eritrea for the last three years. The soldiers are being repatriated to the country and some have even joined their colleagues on the battlefield to tackle al-Shabaab.
"There is no reason for ATMIS to stay or to continue to stay in Somalia," he added.
Ali also made a bold prediction that the government will defeat the krazed killer group by next summer. "Our ... primary goal is that in the summer of 2024, before June or July, there will be no al-Shabaab person occupying territory in Somalia. You can note that down," he said.
Al-Shabaab has, however, lost strategic towns across Somalia in the last six months, an indication that the national army with its partners is moving towards the right course. The country is financially drained but President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has called on members of the international community to help.