African Union (AU) to cut 1,000 troops from a regional peacekeeping force in Somalia next month.
The 29th Meeting of the AMISOM Operations Coordination Committee (MOCC) was hosted by the Government of Uganda in Kampala, Uganda on 28th January, 2020, and chaired by the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ambassador Smail Chergui.
The meeting was attended by Chiefs of Defense Staff (CDS)/Police Chiefs and designated representatives of AMISOM Troop and Police Contributing Countries (T/PCCs) – Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Ghana as well as representatives of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS). The United Nations and European Union as well as the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation and Turkey were also represented in the meeting.
The council voted unanimously to draw down the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), but left the door open for the council to revisit that decision if violence worsens.
The resolution put forward by Britain reduces Amisom troops by 1,000 to a ceiling of 19,626 by February 28, but maintains 1,040 police. The force’s mandate was extended for a year.
Under a transition plan agreed in 2017, Amisom will gradually hand over security to Somali forces, but the African Union has raised concern about the extra responsibility as the country heads to elections next year.
The meeting was held to ascertain plans and confirmation of agreed approaches for the facilitation of key African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) mandated tasks contained in AU PSC Communique 848 and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) authorised tasks contained in UNSC Resolution 2472 (2019).
This includes the drawdown of an additional one thousand (1,000) AMISOM uniformed personnel by 28th February 2020.
The meeting agreed to implement the drawdown as per the timelines and to further study the implications to ensure mitigation of potential risks of reversing the secuirty gains so far achieved. The outcomes of the Joint Threat Assessment which underlines attacks and increased threats in and outside Somalia was also highlighted.
In this regard, the meeting expressed regrets on the decision for this additional drawdown and emphasized the need to take note of the conditions on the ground as well as the pace of development of Somali Security Forces to take over security responsibility from AMISOM.
The meeting also took note of next steps in the implementation of AU PSC Communique 848 and UNSC Resolution 2472 (2019) regarding reconfiguration of AMISOM to continue supporting the objectives of the Somalia Transition Plan and facilitating realignment of the AMISOM 2018 to 2021 CONOPs to address current priorities.
