Somalia has refused the deployment of fresh peacekeepers from Sierra Leone, the country’s Federal Parliament Speaker said.
Mr Mohamed Osman Jawari revealed that they had written a letter to the Sierra Leone government, rejecting the deployment of new forces from the West Africa nation, which has been hit by the deadly Ebola Virus.
‘’ We have told the Sierra Leone government not to send any troops to our country, neither the current troops here should be changed,’’ he said during a Parliament sessison in Mogadishu.
The Speaker said that the country is stepping up efforts to prevent the virus from entering the state. Sierra Leone is one of the three worst hit nations that are still struggling to contain the disease.
Earlier, Somalia Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh said no troops will be allowed to enter the country without going through Ebola virus tests.
Last week, a battalion of 800 Sierra Leone Peacekeepers waiting to be deployed to Somalia were quarantined after one of the soldiers tested Ebola Positive.
Sierra Leone was the fifth African country to have contributed troops to the 18,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Somalia alongside troops from Uganda, Djibouti, Burundi and Kenya.
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