Trump Orders All American Troops Out of Somalia

While the number of forces — about 700 — is small, it is a continuation of President Trump’s efforts to withdraw the United States from what he has described as endless wars.

The Pentagon said the troops in Somalia would be leaving by Jan. 15, five days before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is scheduled to be inaugurated.
The Pentagon said the troops in Somalia would be leaving by Jan. 15, five days before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is scheduled to be inaugurated.Credit…Senior Airman Kristin Savage/Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa, via Associated Press
Helene Cooper

By Helene Cooper

Dec. 4, 2020Updated 6:53 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — President Trump, pressing his end-of-term troop withdrawals from conflicts around the world, will pull American forces out of Somalia, where they have been trying to push back advances by Islamist insurgents in the Horn of Africa.

The Pentagon announced on Friday that virtually all of the approximately 700 troops in Somalia — most Special Operations forces who have been conducting training and counterterrorism missions — will be leaving by Jan. 15, five days before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is scheduled to be inaugurated.

The withdrawal from Somalia followed Mr. Trump’s orders to reduce the American presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, and reflected the president’s longstanding desire to end long-running military engagements against Islamist insurgencies in failed and fragile countries in Africa and the Middle East, a grinding mission that has spread since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The New York Times