UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recommended to the Security Council (UNSC) that African Union to maintain peacekeepers in Somalia until 2023.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) which comprises of at least 20,000 soldiers, police and civilians are tasked in supporting the weak Federal Government of Somalia fight the jihadist insurgents.
The call for extension comes citing AMISOM mandate expires on March 31. The UNSC is expected to vote on March 30 to replace it with a new mission, the African Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).
In his letter, which was delivered on Monday 7th March 2022 to the Security Council, UN chief preferred a plan to gradually reduce ATMIS in four phases, in an effort to enable Somali troops to take primary responsibility for security in Somali by the end of 2023” with a total military departure in 2024.
The Guterres noted that under the plan, ATMIS’s first reduction of 2,000 troops would not occur until after December 2022, with more decreases in each phase. His recommendations are along the same lines as a plan previously worked out between the African Union and the UN.
His recommendation to extend AMISOM mandate in Somalia comes at a time the Al-Qaeda associated Al-Shabaab has spiked up attacks from across Somalia regions.
