American military news website Stripes.com said on Monday, December 30, that incoming U.S. president Donald Trump could pull all of his country’s troops out of Somalia when he takes office in January.
“One of president-elect Donald Trump’s last actions during his first term was pulling all U.S. forces out of Somalia, a move that could be back on the table in a second term that carries the potential for a broader scaling-back of military activities on the continent,” the website said.
It cited former US envoy to the Sahel J. Peter Pham as saying: “I would expect that president Trump will want to reverse course and restore things to where he intended at the end of 2020.”
“Quite frankly, as the corruption of even allegedly elite units like Danab has underscored, we do not have an effective partner in Mogadishu, and there are no U.S. national security interests that justify risking American treasure — much less American blood — in Somalia that cannot be handled offshore or from nearby bases,” Pham was quoted as saying.
In his first term in 2020, Trump ordered the removal of most of the nearly 700 US troops from Somalia and relocated to neighboring countries following similar orders to pull American forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US president-elect has not yet indicated whether he would issue a similar order for Somalia after the Pentagon reversed his earlier decision when Trump left office.
