The international community has reportedly been divided over providing financial support to the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), demanding a new operational model.
Troops serving the mission have not been paid for many months, when there is a question of replacing ATMIS with the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) starting January 2025, Garowe Online reported.
The international community, including some members of the UN Security Council, is not willing to allow the mission in its current form when the United States, along with its allies, is demanding a renewed mission in 2026, although Somalia wants the mission to start in 2025.
The UN officials have suggested a new modality for ATMIS that allows additional time for reviewing new operational models.
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, president of Somalia, has recently met with leaders from countries contributing troops to ATMIS, including Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, and Burundi, excluding Ethiopia because of a diplomatic tension between the two nations since Ethiopia and the self-declared Republic of Somaliland signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) over access to and from the sea.
A former Turkish province, Egypt meets Ankara in Mogadishu, a few miles from the Ethiopian border
The United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS) has recently convened a joint meeting with partners to exchange ideas over the Somali Security Forces (SSF) Trust Fund.
According to the UNSOS, the Trust Fund aims to fulfil the UN Security Council-mandated roles and facilitate “a smooth, sustainable transition of security roles from ATMIS to Somali Security Forces.”
The UN Security Council, under a recently extended resolution 2747 (2024), authorizes the member states of the African Union (AU) to deploy up to 12,626 uniformed personnel, inclusive of 1,040 police personnel, to ATMIS until 31 December 2024.
Somalia wants Ethiopian troops not to be part of the AU’s peacekeeping force from January 2025 and keens the withdrawal of about 5-7,000 Ethiopian soldiers stationed in several regions under separate bilateral agreements.
