Brussels, 16/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 16 March, the mandate of the EU advisory and training mission in Somalia (EUTM Somalia) was extended until 31 December 2016.
While extending this mission, the Council of the EU decided at the same time to modify the mission's mandate in order to focus EUTM Somalia's activities more on strategic advice, to launch a project for strengthening the military capacities of the Somali forces and for starting a transition of training programmes towards mentoring programmes for Somali trainers. Since the start of 2014, the mission has been carrying out its activities in Mogadishu, with a team comprising 125 people. Italy's Brigadier Antonio Maggi has been head of mission since 8 March. (Jan Kordys)