Mogadishu Denies Sending Troops to Ethiopian Tigray Region

Somalia denied on Tuesday that it had sent troops to the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia to fight alongside Addis Ababa.

Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Osman Abu Dubbi said: "This news is untrue and politicized by some people."

Dubbi added that Ethiopia did not ask the federal government in Mogadishu to send its soldiers to participate in the fighting in Tigray.

Few days ago, the Somali media had reported the participation of Somali forces in the fighting alongside Ethiopia in the Tigray region.

In early November, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered to send troops to Tigray in a move he said was in response to attacks by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) t on federal army camps in the region.

Thousands have been killed in the fighting, according to the International Crisis Group, and tens of thousands of refugees poured across the border into Sudan, before the government declared victory and defeated TPLF in late November.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front dominated the ruling coalition in Ethiopia for nearly three decades before Abe took office in 2018.