Somali President meets families of trained soldiers in Eritrea

 Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud met in his office at the presidential palace with a committee representing the families of Somali soldiers trained in Eritrea. President Mahmoud reassured the parents of the conditions of their recruited children who remained in Eritrea and renewed his determination to fulfill his promise to reunite them with their families and return them to the country once the military training is over.

According to a statement issued by the Somali presidency, the committee thanked President Hassan Sheikh for giving priority to their children and fulfilling his promise, which eased their fears. The last time President Mahmoud met with the Committee of Families of Somali soldiers trained in Eritrea was in July 2022, after he visited the recruits in their military barracks in Eritrea.

On December 21, the first batch of Somali soldiers trained in Eritrea arrived at Adam Uday International Airport in the capital, Mogadishu. Sources reported that 400 Somali recruits who had been trained for years in Eritrea returned on a plane to Mogadishu amid an official welcome.

This comes days after Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud announced that the forces in Eritrea are ready to return and that the process of returning the forces to the home will end this January, which has not been done yet. The Somali President has visited the soldiers in their training camps in Eritrea twice since his re-election as President of the Republic last May to facilitate the return of the troops to the country.

About 5,000 Somali soldiers sent by the former Somali government received training in Eritrea, and the secret dispatch of those soldiers during the reign of the former president, Mohamed Abdullah Farmajo, sparked great political controversy in the country, especially after information was leaked about the participation of some of them in the war in Tigray.