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“I directed the activation of a joint job pressure, JTF-Quartz, constructed across the headquarters of Particular Operations Command-Africa, to supervise Operation Octave Quartz, the directed re-positioning of U.S. forces from Somalia to different bases in East Africa,” stated Gen. Stephen Townsed, the commander of US Africa Command, in a press release Saturday.
“The President of the USA has ordered the Division of Protection and the USA Africa Command to reposition the vast majority of personnel and belongings out of Somalia by early 2021,” the Pentagon stated in a press release on the time.
US troops in Somalia primarily practice and advise native Somali forces as they battle al Qaeda’s largest affiliate, Al-Shabaab. The US army additionally carries out airstrikes in opposition to Al-Shabaab and the native ISIS affiliate within the nation, killing a prime Al-Shabaab chief in a focused strike in September.
CNN beforehand reported {that a} Pentagon inspector common report discovered that the terrorist risk in East Africa is just not degraded and that Somali forces will not be in a position to confront the risk with out US assist.
“Regardless of a few years of sustained Somali, US, and worldwide counterterrorism strain, the terrorist risk in East Africa is just not degraded: Al-Shabaab retains freedom of motion in lots of components of southern Somalia and has demonstrated a capability and intent to assault outdoors of the nation, together with concentrating on US pursuits,” the inspector common report stated.
Townsend, in his assertion on Saturday, emphasised that “the U.S. is just not withdrawing or disengaging from East Africa.”
“We stay dedicated to serving to our African companions construct a safer future,” he stated. “We additionally stay able to hanging Al-Shabaab on the time and place of our selecting—they need to not take a look at us.”
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