African leaders push to extend Somalia mission as US withdraws support

Leaders of African nations involved in the African Union mission in Somalia announced Friday their desire to extend the mission's mandate. This decision comes despite the United States ending its political and financial support for the initiative.

Somalia has been battling Islamist militants from the al-Shabaab terrorist group for over two decades, with the group controlling large parts of the country. The African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) provides an additional 12,000 soldiers to aid the Somali army in this fight. The United States had been a key partner, financing the UN Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS).

However, Washington announced in early July its withdrawal of support for UNSOS, accusing the Somali government of insufficient progress in fighting al-Shabaab and addressing security and governance issues. The U.S. emphasized it would no longer assist UNSOS in providing crucial logistical support to the AU mission.

African officials, meeting in Kampala, Uganda, stressed the need for an "orderly, coordinated and gradual withdrawal of the AUSSOM mission." They proposed a UN Security Council-mandated mechanism for up to two years, during which security responsibilities would be gradually handed over to Somali forces. Analysts, however, expressed concerns about a potential collapse of the Mogadishu government, drawing parallels to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

African leaders also appealed to international partners to consider providing additional resources to cover the AU mission's financial deficits. The Mogadishu-based think tank Balqiis reported that UNSOS's operational costs this year reached $500 million, three times the entire budget of the AUSSOM mission.