US President Joe Biden has announced the deployment of American special troops to Kenya to help in the region’s counter-terrorism efforts.
In a letter to the US Congress, President Biden said that he had approved sending special operations troops to Kenya, which is expected to collaborate with the Kenyan military in combating Al-Shabaab. The number of troops is not indicated.
The US deployment is expected to be a security boost for Kenya, which has in recent years suffered deadly gun and bomb attacks from Al-Shabaab. The Somalia-based group is known to have sympathisers in Kenya.
Al-Shabaab has been attacking Somali government and military targets but occasionally launches high-profile assaults in neighbouring states, including Kenya. North Eastern Kenya and parts of the Coast have particularly been targeted by the terrorists, but there have previously been high-profile attacks in Nairobi, including at Westgate Mall in 2013 and the DusitD2 Complex in 2019.
Al-Shabaab has publicly declared intent to conduct attacks in retaliation to Kenya’s counter-terrorism operations in Somalia, which it conducts as part of the African Union Mission (Amisom) and may be emboldened following the announced US withdrawal of forces from Somalia last year.
Former US President Donald Trump last December ordered the withdrawal of an estimated 700 American troops from Somalia by January 15, with the Pentagon saying at the time they would be repositioned to other parts of East Africa — likely Kenya and Djibouti — and continue to carry out raids against the militia and a smaller cluster of Islamic State fighters from bases in neighbouring countries.