Somalia’s government has taken action by suspending and detaining members of the Danab commando unit, a special group trained by the United States, for taking US-donated food supplies. The government will now take over supplying the unit.
The Danab unit is important for the efforts supported by the US to fight the Al-Shabab militants, linked to Al-Qaeda. After finding out about the theft, the Somali Defense Ministry informed international partners and promised to share what they find out from their investigation.
A US official told Reuters that the US takes these theft reports seriously and plans to help Danab set up better controls and rules to stop this from happening again.
The US has been helping the Danab unit since 2017, training them and providing equipment to quickly respond to threats from Al-Shabab. In February, the US also agreed to spend over $100 million to build up to five military bases for the unit.
Despite having early success in a military push that started in 2022, which took back areas from Al-Shabab in central Somalia, the effort is struggling. The Somali forces are having trouble keeping control of rural areas, and Al-Shabab continues to launch major attacks, including in Mogadishu.
This isn’t the first time the US has had to stop some help; it happened in 2017 when the military couldn’t keep track of food and fuel. The US also frequently carries out drone strikes against the militants.
Be the first to comment