A committee from the African Union has concluded a fact-finding trip to Somalia, to assess the security situation ahead of the ATMIS troop reduction plan.
The African Union envoy to Somalia and the head of the ATMIS mission, announced that several advance bases will be handed over to the Somali National Army from June 15, 2023.
The head of the ATMIS mission said that they will reduce the number of their forces by 2000 soldiers, at the end of this month until September 2023.
It was recently, when the Ministry of Defense of Somalia officially announced the reduction in the number of ATMIS troops in the country, assuring that the government is committed to take over security responsibility from ATMIS.
The Ministry of Defense said that 2,000 ATMIS troops will be withdrawn from Somalia by the end of June 2023.
The ministry said in the past few months that it has created forces with the support of its international partners, which will take over the security responsibility of the 2000 ATMIS forces.
Although the Somali government has said that the number of ATMIS will be reduced, some of the leaders of the military countries in Somalia have expressed concern that the ATMIS forces will be reduced, without confirming that the Somali forces can take over the security responsibility of the country.
The current IGAD summit in Djibouti is discussing the security situation in Somalia and the reduction of ATMIS forces.
