MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) - Former Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has urged the leaders of the federal government to address about the controversy surrounding the training of Somali soldiers in Eritrea barely a day after UN report confirmed presence of Somali soldiers in Tigray region.
The revelations add to previous complaints raised by some Somali families, who claimed their kin had been recruited in the Army and never been heard of again. The claims add to the concerns of the Eritrean army participation in Tigray, which rights groups accuse of atrocities.

Sudanese international law scholar Mohamed Abdelsalan Babiker, the UN Special Rapporteur who authored the report, did not travel to Eritrea or the front line in Tigray. But said he received information indicating Somali soldiers were drafted to the battlefront.

Last January, teary-eyed parents accused Somali government of deploying soldiers in Tigray region to take part in the Tigray conflict.

The allegations by the parents were supported by Abdisalam Guled, former deputy spy chief in Somalia who claimed that several hundreds of Somali soldiers had been killed in the ongoing battle in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

He called for an independent investigation into the alleged participation and killing of Somali trainee soldiers in the Tigray battle.

Somali government had distanced itself from the accusations, saying Ethiopia did not request troops or assistance for Somalia.