As part of a military cooperation and strengthening regional security, the Government of Eritrea has trained 5,000 special forces (commandos) of the neighboring Government of Somalia.
The graduation of the 5,000 special forces of is celebrated in Somalia on Sunday with the presence of President Isais Afwerki of Eritrea, who is visiting Somalia. The 5,000 Somali soldiers were sent to Eritrea three years ago to take the special training, according Somalia officials.
After the collapse of the central government of Somalia in 1991, its military and security apparatus has been week leading the country to be exposed to extremist groups and dividing the country to several clan leaders’ administrations.
As a result, Somalia has been exposed to the regional terrorist group al-Shabaab, which has been using the country as its main base for past many years.
It is recalled that after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia came to power in April 2018, he has been promoting regional cooperation among mainly eastern African countries, which led to the frequent meetings among the leaders of Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia, among others.
Prime Minister Abiy has also facilitated peaceful discussions between Somalia and Kenyan leaders, which were disputing on an oil rich area ownership. Currently the two eastern Africa countries have restored diplomatic relations.
In addition, the relation between Eritrea and Djibouti, the two neighbors dispute has also shown improvement over the past few years as a result of interest for peaceful cooperation among the Governments of East African countries.
Pre. Hassan congradulated the trainees for completing rigorous training prog. & underlined contributions they are expected to make in bolstering the SNM. Pre. Isaias for his part expressed Eritrea's honour & pride in the endeavour that reflected special & historic bilateral ties pic.twitter.com/aZ09iMEwGY
— Yemane G. Meskel (@hawelti) July 10, 2022
Meanwhile, currently Ethiopia and the neighboring Sudan, which is allegedely collaborating with the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), are at loggerheads. The dispiute between the two has led to arms conflict over the past few weeks around the disputed border areas, according to reports.