At Least 3,500 AU Soldiers Killed in Somalia Since 2007

Thousands of African Union peacekeepers have been killed and hundreds more injured in Somalia since the forces began their work in that country in early 2007, the head of their mission told VOA Somali.

Mohamed El-Amine Souef, the special representative of the chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia, disclosed the casualty figures during an interview last week with the "Investigative Dossier," a VOA Somali radio program.

Originally known as the African Union Mission in Somalia, the operation's first deployment in Mogadishu came in March 2007 with troops from Uganda. In April 2022, the African Union Mission changed its name to the African Union Transition Mission, or ATMIS, with a view to withdrawing from Somalia by December 2024 after Somali forces assumed security responsibilities in the country. ATMIS currently has around 19,000 peacekeepers operating in Somalia.

Somali government forces supported by local fighters have been conducting military operations since August 2022, and pledged to defeat al-Shabab this year. Recently, the Somali government said non-ATMIS troops from Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti will participate in a second phase of military operations, which are expected to start once the holy month of Ramadan ends.