MOGADISHU (SD) – Former Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has called on Somali government to investigate into the claims that Somali troops ‘fought’ in Tigray war.

Speaking to the media, the leader urged president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and other federal to break the silence about the transportation of Somali national recruits to Tigray region.

“I tell the former President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and his team, you cannot hide the fact of the youth sent to Eritrea from the people of Somalia anymore,” Mohamud said. “The leaders are the ones who face the people & tell them the truth even if it is bitter. Bring back the boys.”

The remarks come after UN report argued that Somali soldiers who were airlifted to Eritrea for training fought alongside Ethiopian forces during the conflict in Tigray region of Ethiopia.

The UN Rapporteur report on the human rights situation in Eritrea said the Somali trainees were picked from their camps and taken to the battlefield in Tigray.

“The Special Rapporteur also received information and reports that Somali soldiers were moved from military training camps in Eritrea to the front line in Tigray, where they accompanied Eritrean troops as they crossed the Ethiopian border,” the report read in part.

The UN report adds credence to various allegations that President Mohamed Farmaajo, who is a member of a Horn of Africa alliance bringing together Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed and Eritrea’s strong man Isaias Afwerki okayed the deployment of the troops to Eritrea.

“The conflict in Tigray has deepened ethnic tensions and created an immense humanitarian crisis, with 4.5 million people – most of Tigray’s population – in urgent need of assistance, the rapporteur added.