On Monday, Somalia’s ambassador to the United Nations accused Ethiopian troops of making illegal incursions crossing their shared border.
The crossing of the border by the Ethiopian troops led to confrontations with local security forces stationed at the border. Currently, there are around 3,000 Ethiopian soldiers stationed in the Horn of Africa, belonging to an African Union peacekeeping mission (ATMIS). The peacekeeping mission aims to fight Islamist militia, al Shabab, who controls large portions of Somalia. There are also an additional 5,000-7,000 Ethiopian soldiers stationed across multiple regions due to a bilateral agreement. According to Reuters, on Sunday, a contingent of Ethiopian soldiers crossed into Somalia’s Hiraan region. This border crossing was made to monitor threats from al Shabaab on Saturday, and a withdrawal on Sunday. Abukar Dahir Osman, Somalia’s UN Ambassador stated that the “misadventure” committed by the Ethiopian troops forced his country to further postpone the planned withdrawal of troops. Originally, ATMIS troops were scheduled to take place in July, but has since been moved to September.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/somalia-accuses-ethiopian-troops-illegal-incursion-2024-06-24/
