{"id":33941,"date":"2017-04-15T12:28:20","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T12:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/us-troops-to-help-somalia-fight-al-shabab\/"},"modified":"2017-04-15T12:28:15","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T12:28:15","slug":"us-troops-to-help-somalia-fight-al-shabab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/us-troops-to-help-somalia-fight-al-shabab\/","title":{"rendered":"US troops to help Somalia fight al-Shabab"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The US says it is sending dozens of troops to Somalia to train forces fighting Islamist group al-Shabab.}<\/p>\n

This is the first time regular US troops have been deployed in Somalia since 1994, although some counter-terrorism advisers are already there.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump last month approved a directive allowing tougher action against al-Shabab.<\/p>\n

In 1993, 18 US special forces personnel were killed in the incident dramatised in the Hollywood film Black Hawk Down.<\/p>\n

{{Who are Somalia’s al-Shabab?}}<\/p>\n

The deaths, and the shooting down of two US helicopters in Mogadishu, shocked the US and the rest of its military personnel were withdrawn from Somalia shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of Somalis were also killed in the 15-hour battle sparked when US forces tried to capture close allies of warlord Mohammed Farah Aideed.<\/p>\n

Since then, the US has restricted most of its activities in Somalia to drone and missile attacks against Islamist militants.<\/p>\n

BBC World Service Africa editor Mary Harper says the US has also trained a highly effective elite Somali force.<\/p>\n

The main focus now is the Somali army, which is fractured, undisciplined and poorly equipped, she says.<\/p>\n

Several other countries, including the UK and Turkey, are also training Somali troops.
\nAl-Shabab, part of al-Qaeda, has a strong presence in many rural parts of Somalia and often stages attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The African Union has a force of about 22,000 soldiers helping the Somali government fight al-Shabab.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

Source:BBC <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The US says it is sending dozens of troops to Somalia to train forces fighting Islamist group al-Shabab.} This is the first time regular US troops have been deployed in Somalia since 1994, although some counter-terrorism advisers are already there. President Donald Trump last month approved a directive allowing tougher action against al-Shabab. In 1993, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33941"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33941"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}