Türkiye is worried “Ethiopia may use Bayraktar TB2 against Somalia”

[Deeq A.]

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signing on an armed Bayraktar TB2 drone that Türkiye sells to Ethiopia.

Mogadishu (PP News Desk) — As the tension between Somalia and Ethiopia grows following the illegal, maritime Memorandum of Understating signed in January 2024  by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed and the President of Somaliland, a self-proclaimed, secessionist administration in Somalia, Turkish government’s strategic studies experts have voiced worries that Ethiopia intends to exploit the weaker military status of Somalia by threatening to use Bayraktar TB2 drones inside Somalia against the Somali National Army to realise its goal to enforce its policy to set up a naval base in the Northern coastal region of Awdal.

In 2021 Ethiopia publicised Bayraktar TB2 drones it had purchased from Türkiye.

In 2021 Türkiye sold Bayraktar TB2 drones to Ethiopia, thereby changing the dynamics of the Ethiopian civil war when TPLF forces advancing to 200 Addis Ababa. Turkish drones halted the advance of TPLF forces. The Ethiopian Defence Forces uses the Turkish drones against FANO, the Amhara armed resistance forces, but targets civilian-populated areas the Ethiopian government deems to be sympathetic to the FANO cause.

Türkiye trains the Somali National Army and maintains a military base in Somalia, but its leverage with the Ethiopian regime has decreased following the Turkish support for the territorial and political unity of Somalia. Türkiye is reportedly looking into sending a naval expedition to the Somali coasts to defend its ally against potential aggression by the regime of Abiy Ahmed whose forces are now armed with the lethal Bayraktar TB2 drones.

© Puntland Post, 2024

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