Biden Deploys US troops back to Somalia to fight al-Shabab extremists

Senior administration officials said that President Joe Biden is sending hundreds of US troops to Somalia to help fight the extremist group al-Shabab. This is a warning that the Al Qaeda branch has grown stronger since the US pulled out its forces there more than a year ago.

Around 500 US troops will be sent to Somalia from other parts of eastern Africa, bringing the overall number of US troops in the region to the same level. Officials did not say where the troops will be stationed or what kind of troops will be dispatched but said Biden approved the deployment after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin requested it.

The long-awaited decision reverses former President Trump’s decision, made in the final days of his presidency, to pull out the more than 700 American military personnel stationed there on rotation. Since then, US forces have come and gone from Somalia, but they have not stayed there permanently.

Adrienne Watson of the National Security Council at the White House says that keeping US soldiers in Somalia on a permanent basis will help US allies fight al-Shabab and the “heightened threat” it poses to Americans in East Africa.

Watson says that the decision to bring back a persistent presence was made so that our soldiers would be safer and more effective and so that they could help our allies in a better way.

Even though the president has said for a long time that he doesn’t want “forever conflicts,” Biden’s decision ties the US military to a huge, worldwide effort to fight terrorism.

Since the 9/11 attacks, the United States has tried to combat a large list of extremist groups across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, many of which are tied to Al Qaeda. Last year, Biden took a big step in the opposite direction when he ended the US military presence in Afghanistan after 20 years. This was a move that was widely criticized and done poorly.

Al-Shabab, which was founded in 2006 with the purpose of establishing an Islamic state, has killed Americans in the region on several occasions, including three in a 2020 attack on a Kenyan base manned by US counterterrorism operations. Over the last 30 years, Somalia has gone through different levels of chaos and political upheaval, with al-Shabab taking control of large parts of the country at times.

Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the think tank’s Long War Journal, says that the situation in Somalia was getting worse even before Trump made his decision.

This is more proof that while the aim to halt the “eternal wars” is admirable in theory, reality strikes you in the face.

Biden’s decision to send troops back to Somalia is meant to improve the safety and efficacy of US special operators who have gone in and out of the country on a regular basis. A senior administration official told the media that shorter deployments have caused problems with efficiency, such as time wasted packing and unpacking equipment.

The rotating deployments are less risky and better position the US military to succeed there, according to the person, who added that Trump’s pullout is being reversed to “rationalize an irrational decision” that the Biden administration inherited. According to the source, keeping troops there will make other people who work in a harsh and dangerous environment feel safer and give them more freedom to move around.

The move also shows that the Biden administration sees Somalia as a priority counterterrorism concern, according to the person, who described al-Shabab as Al Qaeda’s largest and wealthiest global affiliate.

Officials claimed that US troops will be deployed to help Somalia’s fledgling government and other partners create the capacity to put intelligence into operations and expel al-Shabab. Most anti-terrorism operations against al-Shabab are done by Somali partners working with the US in the country.

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