MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Somalia’s prime minister Mohamed Hussein Roble has on Saturday appointed a five-member committee to establish an investigation into the situation of Somali soldiers in Eritrea for a military training and complaints by parents who fear their sons might have died in Ethiopia’s Tigray region after being deployed there.
The move has come a few days after a UN report said Somali recruits who had completed training were moved from Eritrean military training camps and were deployed as cannon fodder in Ethiopia’s Tigray region to fight alongside Ethiopian and Eritrean forces in the war-wrecked region.
In the report, the United Nations special rapporteur for the human rights situation in Eritrea, said Somali troops “were present around Akrum”.
Somalia has again denied it had sent troops to take part in the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and human rights abuses committed by allied forces against Tigrayan civilians, saying that Ethiopian Defense Forces are capable of protecting security of their country’s borders.
Protests staged by parents of missing recruits swept through the capital Mogadishu on Thursday and Friday and families demanded an explanation from the government on the whereabouts of the boys.
Somalia’s prime minister Mohamed Hussein Roble has not yet commented on the issue, which has sparked a political storm and calls for the outgoing president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and his intelligence chief Fahad Yasin to give an information on whether the boys are still alive or dead.
The committee is tasked with establishing probe into the situation of Somali soldiers, who are currently receiving training in Eritrea and complaints by parents whose sons are missing since traveling to Eritrea, according to a statement by the prime minister’s office.
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