MOGADISHU (Somali Update Online) — About 200 well-equipped Turkish military arrived in Somali capital Mogadishu early this week amid latest preparations to open the first Turkish military base in the Horn of African country.
The Turkish Airlines flight carrying the 200 soldiers, officers and military trainers landed at Mogadishu Aden Abdulle Airport. The forces were deployed to the newly built base at Jazeera area in Mogadishu, just outside the main African Union (AMISOM) Halane Headquarters.
Senior officer at the Somali Defense Ministry said another batch of four hundred soldiers is expected to arrive in the coming weeks.
Somali officials and their Turkish counterparts are on the final preparations to open the military training facility which will also become a base for an elite Turkish military units.
ERDOGAN VISIT
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to visit Mogadishu mid next month to cut the ribbon of the new base together with President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo.
According to
Somalia Foreign Minister Yussuf Garaad Omar, the modern military camp will help Somali forces get professional training by Turkish experts.
"This military training camp established by our Turkish friends will be the first professional training camp for the Somali army. That is why it is very important to us," Yusuf Garaad Omar
told Anadolu Agency in Ankara in June.
''We hope that this base will reinforce the professionalism of our army,'' he said.
Built by a
Turkish company under estimated cost of $50 million, the base occupies 400 hectares and houses three military schools, dormitories and depots. It can host 500 soldiers for training and a high wall electric security fence.
Source- mogadishu Somalia
Somalia: About 200 Turkish Forces Arrive in Somali Capital
MOGADISHU (Somali Update Online) — About 200 well-equipped Turkish military arrived in Somali capital Mogadishu early this week amid latest preparations to open the first Turkish military base in the Horn of African country.