Hundreds of fresh Ethiopian armed forces have arrived in the strategic town of Bardere in Gedo region to help Jubbaland state in the fight against Al shabaab an official said.

Mohamed Hussein Al Qadi, the deputy governor of Gedo region under Jubbaland, told to the media that the new Ethiopian soldiers reached Bardere will replace a battalion of 850 Sierra Leone peacekeepers who pulled out of Somalia in 2014.

 

Al Qadi said the troops are expected to launch an operation dubbed Juba corridor aimed at liberating the remaining parts of Jubaland territories from Al shabaab.

 

The Ethiopian armed forces that are part of African Union peace keeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have also arrived at the port city of Kismayo this week, according to Jubbaland officials.

 

The African Union has about 22,000 security personnel in Somalia trying to rein in Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked that seeks to topple the country’s government.