US President Donald Trump has ordered most of the approximately 700 American troops stationed in Somalia to be withdrawn from Somalia by early next year, the US Department of Defense said on Friday.
Some of these troops will be transferred to neighboring countries to provide “cross-border operations”, the statement said, without giving details of the relocation of the troops to be exported.
Despite the withdrawal of these troops from Somalia, the United States will not “leave or abandon Africa,” the statement said.
“The United States will retain the ability to conduct targeted counter-terrorism operations in Somalia and to collect early warnings and signs of threats to its own country,” the Department of Defense added.
U.S. forces have carried out a counter-terrorism operation in Somalia against the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, which once controlled much of the country. There is also a local branch of the Islamic State in the region.
Human rights organization Amnesty International has previously criticized the United States for its air strike campaign in Somalia, which has killed 21 civilians and injured 11 since 2019.
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