The Minister of Defense of Somalia warned Ethiopian troops on Tuesday. Abdi Qadir, the Defense Minister, warned the Ethiopian soldiers against continued military presence in Somalia after December 2024.
The minister said that after the 31st December 2024, Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia will be treated as enemies and invaders.
Thousands of Ethiopian troops are deployed as peacekeepers in Somalia. For years, the Ethiopian soldiers have been operating in Somalia. Bulk of them is part of ongoing ATMIS (African Union Transition Mission in Somalia) whose mandate will expire at the end of this year. New peacekeeping mission called African Union Support and Stabilization Mission (AUSSOM) will take over on January 1, 2025. Somalia does not want Ethiopian troops to be part of the new peacekeeping mission. Ethiopian troops are deployed under bilateral arrangement too between the government of Ethiopia and regional governments in Somalia.
Ethiopia Somalia tensions escalated at the start of this year when Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding with Somaliland. Somalia calls this MoU a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
While Somalia is telling Ethiopia to withdraw all its troops from Somalia by the end of this year, Ethiopian troops show no signs of complete withdrawal from Somalia.
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