Protests erupt in Somalia over missing sons

In Somalia, hundreds of parents took to the streets in Mogadishu, staging protests and demanding to the know whereabouts of their missing sons secretly sent to war in Eretria.

Days after UN report revealed that Somali troops fought alongside Eritrean troops in Ethiopia's Tigray region, the protesters were carrying placards written "Return our boys” and other slogans.

Somali opposition presidential candidates joined the Somali parents in asking a thorough investigation into the missing boys.

Former President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said that the soldiers were essentially "sold" to Eritrea to cement Farmajo's political alliance with Eritrea. 

He has also 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.

Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, the leader of the Wadajir party, led the criticism by accusing Farmajo of sanctioning the deployment he called “illegal.” 

The opposition leader urged Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble to meet the parents of the young soldiers and make appropriate reports to them.

“Our son was very young and he was told that he was going to Qatar for training. He was told he will be paid well and become an army officer. But he was transferred to Eritrea. Since his departure, we never communicated with him,” Bashir Sheikh Ali, the father of a recruit, told Anadolu Agency in Mogadishu.

The outgoing president Farmajo turned a blind eye to the calls by the protesting parents who are in despair of seeing again their children as their whereabouts remain unknown.

Late last month, the Biden administration announced that it had placed visa restrictions on Ethiopian and Eritrean officials it holds responsible for "wrongful violence" and other abuses against civilians.

The UN human rights council released a report earlier this week claimed authorities sent Somali soldiers training in Eritrea to the front lines, including accounts of Somali soldiers being present in Axum, where human rights organizations say hundreds of civilians were massacred.