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Somalia Wants Delay of African Peacekeepers' Drawdown

Somalia is facing a dilemma over plans to continue a drawdown of peacekeepers from the country by a deadline of the end of 2024 because it's not known whether the country's poorly equipped security forces can put down al-Shabab militants' security threat to the government by that time.

The African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (ATMIS) completed the handing over of six military bases to Somali forces last week. A seventh base was closed down. The AU wants to gradually reduce the number of troops until December of 2024, when the mission concludes.

The deputy president of Jubaland, a region where Kenyan and Ethiopian troops operate, told VOA Somali that it will be "difficult" for Somali forces to secure areas being vacated by the AU troops.

But other Somali officials disagreed. Yasin Abdullahi Mohamud, known as Farey, is a member of the parliament, and the former director of the National Intelligence and Security Agency. He is currently among the officials mobilizing local forces against Al-Shabaab. He said Somalis are grateful to the AU forces but the decision for the drawdown is not a hasty move.

Mohamud said ATMIS forces were not largely involved in the military operations against al-Shabaab within the last year, and he asserted the time has come for Somali forces to step up.

InFocus

Fardosa Hussein / ATMIS Photo / Flickr (CC0 1.0)

Senior ATMIS, Djibouti and US officials inspect one of twenty-four Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) donated by the U.S. to boost operations in areas under the security responsibility of Djibouti Armed Forces serving with the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS). The handover ceremony took place in Mogadishu, Somalia on 3 August 2022.

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