The African Union plans to have its new peacekeeping mission in Somalia – AUSSOM (AU Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia) – fully operational by July 2025, replacing ATMIS, which ended its mandate on 1 January 2025.
The new mission will be the third phase of the African Union’s efforts to stabilise Somalia, and will focus on Somali leadership, supporting Somali security forces, weakening Al-Shabaab, stabilising areas liberated from Al-Shabaab, and preparing Somalia to fully assume responsibility for the country’s security by December 2029.
The African Union signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June with the military and police contributing countries to the mission: Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. These countries will play a key role in the security and operational aspects, providing troops and strategic support.
It was agreed that the MoUs would be submitted to the African Union’s regulatory office before being formally signed. The talks follow earlier technical meetings in Addis Ababa and Kampala, which laid out the roadmap for the new mission.
AUSSOM is authorized to have up to 12,000 troops, including 680 police, but the plan is to reduce this number by the end of 2025.
However, AUSSOM faces a serious financial crisis. Between January and June 2025, the mission required $90.4 million, but only $16.7 million was received, resulting in a shortfall of $73.7 million.
The mission’s finances are recommended to be covered by a new integrated system, which allows up to 75% of the annual budget to be paid through UN contributions from Member States, starting from 1 July 2025, as stipulated in UN Security Council Resolution (2719/2023).
However, the implementation of this new system was conditional on a decision being made before 15 May 2025, which remains questionable, as no tangible financial support has been provided to the mission to date.
AUSSOM is launching this operation as Al-Shabaab is carrying out a series of attacks and capturing new territory, leading to a request at the troop-contributing countries’ conference in Uganda in April 2025 to increase the mission’s forces to an additional 8,000 troops.
