The Turkish government has denied reports claiming that it plans to send 15,000 soldiers to Somalia, following reports that the Somali government had requested additional troops from Ankara to bolster the country’s security.<\/p>\n
“Reports suggesting that Turkey, in response to a request from Somalia, will send 15,000 soldiers to that country are not true,” stated the Turkish Ministry of National Defense.<\/p>\n
Ankara\u2019s denial came during a press conference held by the Turkish Ministry of National Defense today, Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Ministry\u2019s spokesperson, Admiral Zeki Akt\u00fcrk, made these remarks during a weekly briefing, in response to a question regarding Somalia and the alleged deployment of new troops to the country.<\/p>\n
The Ministry later shared this response on its official X (formerly Twitter) account.<\/p>\n
The Ministry added that Turkish forces currently in Somalia\u2014including personnel from the military operations command and the air force command\u2014continue to support Somalia, specifically by building the capacity of the country\u2019s armed forces to combat terrorism, and by providing military training and advisory services.<\/p>\n
Reports regarding 15,000 soldiers circulated widely in early November, following statements from undisclosed security sources that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had requested 20,000 troops from his allies.<\/p>\n
However, neither government has confirmed this troop figure, and the Somali government has issued no official statement addressing the claim that 15,000 soldiers were requested from Turkey.<\/p>\n
These reports emerged as the Ugandan government began implementing its plan to withdraw its forces from Somalia. On November 2, the Ugandan military announced that the first contingent of its troops\u2014deployed under a bilateral agreement\u2014had returned home. Meanwhile, other Ugandan forces, including those serving as part of the African Union mission (AUSSOM), are expected to depart Somalia by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n
In 2017, Turkey opened the TURKSOM military training camp in Mogadishu\u2014its largest overseas facility\u2014and has since expanded its support for the Somali armed forces by providing training, military counsel, and equipment.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, on February 8, 2024, the two countries signed a 10-year agreement on defense and economic cooperation, focusing on maritime security, counter-terrorism, anti-piracy efforts, and the combatting of illegal fishing. Turkey has also supplied Somalia with T129 helicopters and other military equipment.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, hours before the press conference, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense announced that Somali soldiers had completed basic commando training at the 8th Commando Training Brigade in the city of Manisa, where a graduation ceremony was held.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Turkish government has denied reports claiming that it plans to send 15,000 soldiers to Somalia, following reports that the Somali government had requested additional troops from Ankara to bolster the country’s security. “Reports suggesting that Turkey, in response to a request from Somalia, will send 15,000 soldiers to that country are not true,” stated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dhacdoyinka-caalamka","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126867,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126866\/revisions\/126867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}