AU examines Somalia plea to slow troop withdrawal: officials
The African Union was studying a request from Somalia Thursday to slow down the withdrawal of its forces deployed in the country against Islamist militants, officials from the body said.
Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group, has been waging a deadly insurgency against the fragile central government in Somalia for more than 17 years.
The third and penultimate phase was to see the departure of 4,000 soldiers by the end of June.
The government wants only 2,000 men to leave in June and the other 2,000 in September, the official said, adding that Mogadishu had put forward the need to carry out an “offensive operation”.
At present, 13,500 ATMIS soldiers are deployed in Somalia.
“The PSC will discuss on Thursday the (Somali) request to slow down the reduction in the number of ATMIS troops by a few months,” an AU diplomat, who also requested anonymity, told AFP.
But any extension would lead to budgetary problems, he said, and a change would not be “just a decision by the PSC”.
ATMIS derives its mandate from the AU but must also be authorised by the UN Security Council.
In addition, ATMIS’ main direct financial contributor is the European Union, which has released 70 million euros ($75 million) for 2024.
Although driven out of the capital by AU forces in 2011, Al-Shabaab still has a strong presence in rural Somalia.
It has carried out repeated attacks against political, security and civilian targets, mostly in Somalia but also in neighbouring countries including Kenya.
Last week in southern Somalia, Al-Shabaab planted a roadside bomb that killed six soldiers including a senior military commander.
