Atmis troop contributors endorse Somalia’s request to delay drawdown

Troop contributors for the African Union Transition Mission to Somalia (Atmis) have backed Mogadishu’s request to delay a drawdown programme by three months, indicating there could be security lapses in the war on terror.

The five troop contributors to the AU Mission told the UN Security Council that they were in “strong support of technical pause” of the drawdown because they agree with Somalia that the country needs time to address certain security gaps including pooling enough personnel to take over security responsibilities.

One of the gaps identified in a joint African Union-Somalia technical report was Somalia’s current inability to guard residential areas near Forward Operating Bases (Fob) to be relinquished by Atmis. The troop contributors want Mogadishu to be given more time to generate its own troops and other resources to ensure the areas do not fall back to Al Shabaab hands.

The UN Security Council is expected to discuss the matter, but the African Union Peace and Security Council is supposed to facilitate discussions on how to continue funding the troops beyond September 29.

Atmis, initially known as the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) had 21,000 troops but has been drawing down the numbers under a programme agreed on last year in April. The Mission is supposed to leave entirely by December 2024.