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Trump seeks withdrawal of most US troops from Somalia: Revisiting America's mission in the African nation

The president, whose tenure has seen the US's raids on Somalia intensifying, has now ordered a pullout from one of the most politically disturbed countries
PUBLISHED DEC 5, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

President Donald Trump is busy making some serious moves in foreign affairs before his exit from the White House next month. The incumbent, who has often vowed to end the US’s endless wars abroad and taken steps like withdrawing troops from overseas, has now ordered the Pentagon to remove most of the American troops deployed in Somalia to assist its military in its battle against al-Shabab (Harakat Shabaab al-Mujahidin) terrorists.

The Pentagon announced on Friday, December 4, that most of the roughly 700 troops will be relocated to countries that are neighbors to Somalia from where they will continue fighting al-Shabab which is aligned to al-Qaeda. The Pentagon though did not specify the number of troops that would remain in war-torn Somalia. The withdrawal has to be completed by an unspecified date in 2021, the statement said.

Trump’s latest troops-withdrawal move came in the wake of his decision to reduce troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to 2,500 service members in each of those countries by January 15. The decision on Somalia also came just days after Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said no decision had been made over America’s military presence in Somalia and also characterized al-Shabab as a threat to the US “if left unattended”. The Pentagon said its policy on Somalia has not changed and vowed to continue fighting al-Shabab and other terror outfits based in the East African nation. “The U.S. will retain the capability to conduct targeted counterterrorism operations in Somalia, and collect early warnings and indicators regarding threats to the homeland,” the statement read.

The latest announcement also came just a week after acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller went to Somalian capital Mogadishu during the Thanksgiving holiday to meet the American soldiers stationed there. Miller did not immediately make any remark on the decision on Somalia. 

American troops deployed in Somalia have the responsibility of conducting counter-terrorism operations besides advising and assisting support to the country’s forces -- mainly against al-Shabab. Somalia also has some presence of the Islamic State though it lacks the capacity as al-Shabab, America’s defense officials have said. 

US intervened in Somalia in early 1990s for humanitarian reasons:

In December 1992, the then president George H W Bush ordered 28,000 troops to Somalia where rival warlords stood on the way of humanitarian aid reaching the starving people in the African nation, one of the poorest on earth, thanks to clan-based civil war and drought. 

Former president George H W Bush (Getty Images)

Bush called the military mission “God’s work” and said the US must act to save more than a million endangered lives in Somalia. The US chipped in to help the United Nations to distribute humanitarian aid in Somalia which was thwarted by poor law-and-order situation. On December 9, 1992,  the first US Marines landed in the first phase of the mission named ‘Operation Restore Hope’ and assured the country that “this operation is not open-ended” and that “we will not stay one day longer than is absolutely necessary”. But the lame-duck former president’s words failed in reality. The US’ humanitarian troops became so involved in Somalia’s political tussle. The mission went on for several months and Bush’s successor -- Bill Clinton -- called it off in 1993.

Clinton, like Bush, was wary about bringing the Americans from Somalia back home and in May 1993, the mission was formally handed back to the UN. By June 1993, only 4,200 American troops remained in that country. But when 24 Pakistani UN peacekeeping personnel inspecting a weapons storage stage were massacred by Somalian soldiers under warlord General Mohammad Aidid, American and UN forces started an extensive manhunt for Aidid which saw 400 elite US troops from Delta Force and the US Rangers reaching Somalia to catch the warlord.

A government militiaman stands in the rubble of the infamous Bakara market on August 13, 2011 in Mogadishu, Somalia. The Bakara market was where two US Army helicopters were shot down and 19 American servicemen killed in 1993 during the Battle of Mogadishu(Getty Images)

A few months later, a horrific assault took place on Mogadishu’s Olympic Hotel in search of Aidid and in the Battle of Mogadishu lasting 17 hours, as many as 1,000 Somalis lost their lives while many of the US soldiers were also killed. Soon after, Clinton ordered a complete US withdrawal and in March 1994, the last US troops left Somalia and in 1995, the UN troops also departed, leaving Somalia to continue with its clan-based fighting. The ‘Black Hawk Down’ incident of 1993 saw one of the biggest tragedies in the history of US military missions overseas and it brought a big change in Washington’s Africa policy.

US gets involved in Somalia again

In 1998, the Clinton administration perceived serious threats emanating from Africa. In August that year, truck bombs claimed by al-Qaeda killed 224 people at the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The suspects included Somalian citizens and the US received reports that members of the terror outfits were also present in Somalia. The US’ battle with al-Qaeda intensified after the 9/11 terror attacks and in December 2002, 

Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, a suspected terrorist wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of the US Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, is shown in a photo released by the FBI October 10, 2001 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

The US sent 1,300 military personnel to set up a counter-terrorism unit near the African nation. The unit was based in Djibouti and tasked to hunt down militant groups in six countries located in the Horn of Africa region. In early 2006, Somali warlords set up an “Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism” in Mogadishu. Experts said it was backed by the CIA to challenge the growing influence of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which was forced out by Ethiopian forces. Al-Shabab came up as the radical youth wing of the ICU. It sought to overthrow the US-backed Somali government and set up a hardline Islamic nation. It operates throughout the country and has conducted bombings and attacks in Somalia and neighboring nations, including the terror attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2013 where 67 were killed. More recently, the outfit claimed responsibility for an attack on the Manda Bay Airfield along Kenya’s coast located south of Somalia, killing an American soldier and two defense department contractors.

Since 2007, US raids on Somalia have increased

In 2007, the US conducted an airstrike on the southern Somalian village of Hayo to flush out an al Qaeda cell accused of bombing the American embassies in 1998 and an Israeli-owned hotel in 2002. The US later said that up to 10 terrorists were killed but some of those on the most-wanted list survived. Several US raids have been conducted in Somalia over the past decade or so as the conflict with the terror units intensified. Till November 2020, there have been nearly 50 US airstrikes in Somalia.

In 2017, the Pentagon declared that it was deploying dozens of troops to Somalia to train its national army. While the US Army had small counter-terrorism forces that operated in the African nations at times before 2017, it was the first time that conventional forces were back to operation in Somalia since the US pulled out in the mid-1990s. America’s presence in Somalia has grown to between 700 and 800 troops at any given point in time.

Trump though made a pledge during his 2016 presidential campaign that his administration will distance Washington from “endless wars”, in reality, he expanded military action against al-Shabab, mainly in the form of airstrikes. 

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