Abbay Media News
Yassin Ibrahim
It’s being reported that thousands of soldiers from the African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) will be leaving by the end of this year regardless of the fact that there was a terrorist attack in the capital Moqadisho that claimed the life of more than 350 people and wounded several hundreds more. The reason for the significant reduction of AMISOM troops is largely due to the reduction in salary payments and the failure of AMISOM to address related grievances from the soldiers.
In contrast with AMISOM, Ethiopian government troops were seen crossing the Ethio Somali border in thousands. The move by Ethiopian government, analysts say, is to regain the support of the western powers and the United States at the time the pressure from antigovernment movements at home and abroad is mounting causing split within TPLF – the core party of the foursome EPRDF coalition.
The recent protest in Oromia that claimed many lives and destroyed properties inside Ethiopia on one hand and the passage of House Resolution 128 and Senate resolution 168 by the respective house and Senate foreign relations committees on the other has sent shockwaves through the high ranking leadership circle of the Ethiopian government.
Reports show that in the past 10 years the African Union has brought 22,000 soldiers into Somalia.
