EU extends Somalia’s training mission

Kiyonga (left) walking with Piqueras at Entebbe Airport yesterday

By Steven Candia
HE Spanish minister for defence, Carme Chacon Piqueras, yesterday jetted into the country and announced the European Union’s (EU) decision to extend the training programme of Somali defence forces in Uganda.
“The EU and the government of Spain is satisfied with this mission and has decided to extend it for another one year,” she said during a brief press conference in Entebbe. Forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia are undergoing training at Bihanga, Ibanda district. Piqueras also pledged the EU’s and her countries continued support to the programme under the European Union Training Mission (EUTM).

Spain has the operational command of the mission.

Piqueras, who landed at Entebbe International Airport aboard a Spanish Airbus 320 airliner, complete with a team of Spanish journalists, was received by her Ugandan counterpart Dr. Crispus Kiyonga. The Council of the European Union in March last year decided to start a European Union military mission to train Somali defence forces from the Transitional Federal Government. The mission was launched in May and was to last one year, with two training periods, each lasting for six months. The EU and Spain, she said, were pleased with the mission, thus the extension. The extension, she said, would come with both logistical and financial assistance. Kiyonga said: “Piqueras was on a visit to check on the Bihanga UPDF training camp where the Somali soldiers of the TFG are undergoing training.” The EU undertook the mission with the aim of bolstering the transitional government of Somalia. Somalia’s government is battling Islamist militants, thought to have been reinforced recently by al-Qaeda. Under the programme, up to 2,000 soldiers of the TFG were to be trained, but so far 1,000 have been trained.

“With the extension, we should be able to train 2,000 soldiers,” Kiyonga said. Piqueras described the mission as vital toward combating piracy on the Indian Ocean and countering terrorism as posed by the al-Shabaab militia in Somalia, thereby improving regional and international security. “We are concerned and the public is concerned about the capability of the al-Shabaab and we are going to give tools and instruments to combat terrorism,” she said. Piqueras, who flew in from Djibouti having connected through Seychelles, lauded Uganda for agreeing to host the mission.