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The Trump administration will withdraw virtually all of the roughly 700 US troops in Somalia from the country just five days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
The pullout, announced by the Pentagon on Friday, apparently marks the latest attempt by President Donald Trump to curtail America’s presence abroad in what he described as costly and ineffective military operations in regions like the Middle East.
Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller announced in November that the United States plans to reduce US troops from 4,500 to 2,500 in Afghanistan and from 3,000 to 2,500 in Iraq. But the change in strategy in Somalia appears to be somewhat different.
Rather than a case of bringing troops home, many of the forces will be relocated to neighboring Kenya, according to a Defense Department official, although it is not clear so far what percentage of the Somalia-based troops will be repositioned there.
“As a result of this decision, some forces may be reassigned out of East Africa,” the Pentagon said in a statement on Friday. “However, the remaining forces will be repositioned from Somalia to neighboring countries to allow cross-border operations by both US forces and associated forces.”
What was the United States doing in Somalia?
US forces stationed in Somalia were largely tasked with counterterrorism missions, with a particular focus on fighting the presence of al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group linked to al Qaeda. And US troops have also worked to train Somali forces to raid and capture al-Shabaab leaders.
According to the Pentagon, the mission against al-Shabaab will not end; Instead, troops once stationed in the country “will keep up the pressure against violent extremist organizations operating in Somalia” from bases in Kenya and elsewhere.
The Pentagon also said the military “will retain the ability to conduct targeted counterterrorism operations in Somalia and collect early alerts and indicators on threats to the homeland.”
It is not entirely clear how successful the United States has been in Somalia in this mission. And the United States’ methods of carrying out its work against al-Shabaab have been met with harsh criticism from watchdogs, who argue that counterterrorism operations in East Africa have been carried out without an adequate level of accountability. .
One of the main US tools against al-Shabaab has been drone strikes, which it has been conducting in Somalia since 2007. The frequency of such strikes has increased significantly during the Trump administration, with 47 strikes carried out in 2018 and 63 in 2019. according to the New York Times. In total, the Trump administration has carried out at least 192 drone strikes in Somalia, according to an analysis by New America.
Under Trump, oversight guidelines for attacks in Somalia, some of which are aimed at minimizing civilian casualties, have also been relaxed.
In the first seven months of the Trump administration, Trump oversaw more drone attacks than took place under George W. Bush and Barack Obama combined, and human rights groups have accused US officials of acknowledging a fraction of the victims. known civilians from those attacks. Amnesty International has accused the administration of passing off the killings of civilians as successful al-Shabaab raids and of refusing to offer compensation when innocent people are accidentally killed.
Al-Shabaab seems to resist the intervention of the United States. A report by the Department of Defense inspector general this year found that Somalia’s security forces appear to still be overwhelmed by the militant group.
Despite many years of sustained international, American and Somali counter-terrorism pressure, the terrorist threat in East Africa is not degrading: al-Shabaab maintains freedom of movement in many parts of southern Somalia and has demonstrated the ability and intent to to attack outside the country, including targeting US interests, ”the report states.
And that ability has been showing lately. Recently, a CIA contractor was killed in action in Somalia, and al-Shabaab staged an attack in January on an American facility in Kenya that resulted in the death of an American soldier, two contractors, and the destruction of expensive military equipment, including one. American. surveillance boats.
Particularly in light of the January attack, US military officials in East Africa reportedly began pushing for greater flexibility to launch airstrikes from Kenya, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also asked Trump for greater help in countering al-Shabaab earlier this year. The redeployment of troops would appear to achieve both objectives.
And indeed, although the training of Somali security forces by the United States is expected to end, air strikes against militants in Somalia will continue, as the air bases hosting US drones carrying out strikes in Somalia are currently out of the country.
