According to reports and video from the area, Egyptian military officers and equipment have arrived in Mogadishu, signaling the start of a major deployment that will see up to 10,000 Egyptian soldiers stationed in Somalia.
Egypt’s commitment to the defense agreement just inked in Cairo earlier this month by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was demonstrated by the sight of two C-130 Egyptian military planes landing at Aden Adde International Airport.
The deployment coincides with heightened tensions in the area, especially in the wake of a contentious Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Ethiopia and Somaliland. Some see Egypt’s military involvement in Somalia as a calculated effort to balance regional dynamics, particularly in light of the ongoing conflicts around the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and Egypt’s larger geopolitical objectives in the Horn of Africa.
The upcoming African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia includes this military collaboration.
By January 2025, (AUSSOM) will take the place of the present ATMIS mission. The action has complicated Somalia’s security environment further, raising the possibility of regional rivalries intensifying and making Somalia the center of proxy wars.
The Egyptian military’s arrival in Mogadishu not only emphasizes the strengthening military ties between Egypt and Somalia, but it also shows how peacekeeping and security efforts in Somalia are changing. Local forces there are working with international assistance to fight extremist organizations like al-Shabab and bring stability to the country.