PARIS — France has offered to train 3,000 Somali security forces as part of a European Union mission to combat high-seas piracy and restore stability to Somalia, the defence ministry said Friday.

Defence Minister Herve Morin made the offer in a letter sent earlier this week to the Swedish EU presidency and said other European countries could take part in the new initiative.

France has already begun training 500 Somali troops at its base in Djibouti.

“Somalia must not be allowed to become a new centre of instability,” said a defence ministry statement announcing the French offer.

France is “committed to actively take part in this European mission, in particular by providing training and logistical support,” said Morin in the statement.

“A robust training of Somali operational and security forces could lead to an efficient stabilising action,” he said.

France’s minister for Europe, Pierre Lellouche, was in Djibouti on Friday for talks with his EU counterparts about the anti-piracy Operation Atalanta launched in December.

Germany, Spain and Russia are considering taking part in the French training programme, according to French officials.

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Source: AFP

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