The Atmis will succeed the current AMISOM and will see its numbers of nearly 20,000 soldiers, police and civilians gradually reduced to zero end 2024.
Le Monde
The UN Security Council voted unanimously, Thursday, March 31, the creation in Somalia of a new peacekeeping force led by the African Union (AU), with the mission of Struggle until the end of 2024 against chabab jihadists. This force, baptized atmis, will succeed the current AU mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and will see its numbers of nearly 20,000 soldiers, police and civilians gradually reduced to zero as at December 31, 2024.
At the end of a unanimous vote of its fifteen member states and “after many months of constructive exchange, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that […] reconfigures the AMISOM. He On the other hand is the transition mission of the African Union in Somalia (ATMIS), “announced the United Arab Emirates, which presided over the Council in March.
In the middle of the UN diplomatic crisis with Russia, the United States welcomed this “rare opportunity for the Council to contribute to configuring the transition from a” peacekeeping mission. The Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Mills, rented “the efforts of the Somali Federal Government, the African Union and other stakeholders” on the file concerning the armed conflict in this East African country.
The US diplomat recalled that chabab jihadists “accounted for Somalia and more broadly for East Africa a formidable threat capable of adapting”. And that it was therefore necessary for an “international conducted by Africa” force, like the Atmis, to counter “the greatest and the most funded of Al-Qaeda subsidiaries”.
“Effective Zero “in December 2024
The mandate of AMISOM, force created in 2007, expired this March 31 and the Secretary-General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, had recommended at the beginning of the month to maintain until 31 December the current workforce, of Exactly 19,626 military, police and civilians.
Depending on the resolution voted Thursday, the gradual reduction plan of the ATMI staff will be done in four phases until the start of all the staff, end 2024. A first reduction of 2,000 military must intervene by the December 31, 2022, then several decreases at the end of each stage: March 2023, September 2023, June 2024 and then “zero actual” at the end of December 2024, according to the text of the resolution.
Somalia, and particularly its capital, Mogadishu, have been in recent weeks the scene of multiple attacks, two of which occurred last week in the center of the country, claimed by the Islamists of Chabab and who killed at least 48 people.
This country has been waiting for more than a year the election of a new Parliament and a new president. The mandate of the current Head of State, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, says “Farmajo”, expired in February 2021 without having managed to organize a ballot. Since then, the process advances painfully, delayed by conflicts at the top of the executive and between the central government and some states of the country.
After many postponements, the closing of the elections of the lower house was fixed on Thursday, March 31st. This step must open a new phase leading to the designation of a new head of state. These repeated delays are worrying the international community, which believes that they divert the attention of critical authorities for the country, to the forefront of which the insurrection of Chabab.