Trump orders virtually all US troops out of Somalia

Pentagon announced Friday that virtually all of the approximately 700 troops in Somalia will be leaving by Jan 15

President Donald Trump, pressing his end-of-term troop withdrawals from conflicts around the world, will pull US forces out of Somalia, where they have been trying to push back advances by Islamic insurgents in the Horn of Africa.

The Pentagon announced Friday that virtually all of the approximately 700 troops in Somalia — most Special Operations troops who have been conducting training and counterterrorism missions — will be leaving by Jan. 15, five days before President-elect Joe Biden is scheduled to be inaugurated.

The withdrawal from Somalia followed Trump’s orders to reduce the US presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, and reflected the president’s long-standing desire to end long-running military engagements against Islamic insurgencies in failed and fragile countries in Africa and the Middle East, a grinding mission that has spread since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The debate over the value of counterterrorism and training missions like the one in Somalia, site of the bloody “Black Hawk Down” debacle in 1993, is growing — among the public, in Congress and even in the Pentagon.

But Trump’s push to leave Somalia before he leaves office comes at a delicate time for the East African nation: It is preparing for parliamentary elections next month and a presidential election scheduled for early February. The removal of American troops could complicate any ability to keep election rallies and voting safe from al-Shabab bombers. It also comes at a time of political turmoil in neighboring Ethiopia, whose army has also battled al-Shabab.

Supporters of the mission say it is important for the United States to continue strikes on militants and to help train government forces to prevent their territory from becoming a haven for planning terrorist strikes, much like how al-Qaida plotted the Sept. 11 attacks from a home base in Afghanistan. Even some of Trump’s staunchest Republican allies in Congress have warned against troop cuts in Somalia.

Many of the US troops will be “repositioned” to nearby Kenya, a Defense Department official said Friday. That means airstrikes by drones on militants in Somalia could continue but efforts to effectively train local security forces on the ground would end.

The Pentagon pledged that efforts to safeguard US interests would continue.