SOMALIA: UAE programme to pay, train soldiers disbanded

Somalia has disbanded a United Arab Emirates program to train some of its troops in a fresh sign that a dispute in the Gulf involving Qatar is spilling into the volatile country in the Horn of Africa. The government will take over paying and training the soldiers in the program, Defence Minister Mohamed Mursal Abdirahman […]

Somalia has disbanded a United Arab Emirates program to train some of its troops in a fresh sign that a dispute in the Gulf involving Qatar is spilling into the volatile country in the Horn of Africa.

The government will take over paying and training the soldiers in the program, Defence Minister Mohamed Mursal Abdirahman told Somalia’s state news agency SONNA on Wednesday.

The UAE has trained hundreds of troops since 2014 as part of an effort boosted by an African Union military mission to defeat an Islamist insurgency and secure the country for the government, which is backed by Western nations, Turkey and the United Nations.