Borkena
Toronto – Field Marshal Berhanu Jula, Ethiopia’s Defense Chief of Staff, reported to the Ethiopian parliament a nine months performance report.
He painted a grim picture of the security situation in the region. One of the possible dangers to Ethiopia is linked to forces, based on what he reported, Somalia whom he said have a high concentration.
“We have deployed troops as part of ATMIS [African Union Transition Mission in Somalia]. We have also deployed troops on a bilateral arrangement outside of ATMIS,” Berhanu Jula reported at the Ethiopian parliament.
However, he unspecified the number of Ethiopian forces deployed to Somalia outside of ATMIS over the past nine months. It is also unclear as to when Ethiopia and Somalia signed a bilateral agreement to deploy troops outside of ATMIS. Until December 2024, the two countries were on the verge of what appeared to be a military conflict after the Abiy Ahmed administration and Somaliland signed an MoU on January 1, 2024. Somalia saw the agreement with Somaliland as a violation of its sovereignty. At this point, there is no vital sign that the agreement is still alive while there was no official declaration from both sides on its status.
In February this year, Ethiopia and Somalia signed an MoU for troop deployment as part of ATMIS after Turkish mediation which resulted in the Ankara Declaration ended hostility between the two nations over the MoU the former signed with Somaliland.
There were reports that Ethiopia contributed only 2500 troops for the ATMIS mission.
Ethiopia had been contributing more than 10,000 troops to the peace keeping mission in Somalia for well over a decade.
“Engagement in Somalia for a long time emanated from our desire to make the region peaceful and to support the government of Somalia,” the Defense Chief told the parliament.
However, he also stated that “our engagement in Somalia is directly related to our security.” Egypt, whose relation with Ethiopia has been hostile at least for over a decade due to – among other things – Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), exploited the tension between Somalia and Ethiopia to enter into a military agreement with the government in Mogadishu in August 2024. As many as 10,000 Egyptian troops were to be deployed as part of ATMIS and on account of bilateral agreement.
It does not appear to be the case, however, that the Defense Chief was making a reference to Egyptian forces in Somalia when they said “there are high concentrations of enemy forces” in Somalia.
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I don’t think there is someone among us who wants to see any conflict among the countries of the Horn of Africa. They can go around arguing and fussing about one nonsense after another but they should never raise arms against each other. All the issues they raise from time to time can be solved through continuous peaceful manner. They should stop and refrain themselves from all behavior to violate the sovereignty and union of their neighbors. They should stop harboring and arming groups hell bent in disintegrating the country next door. The Horn of Africa sits on untapped huge resources both natural and human. The sky will be the limit what they can do together at peace with each other. It can be a reality with unwavering will to achieve it.
God speed y’all!!!