Somalia’s presidential advisor on security Hussein Sheikh Ali has falsified media reports that the Horn of African nation was seeking to lengthen stay of the African Union troops .
Reacting to an article by the Kenyan-based The East African newspaper which professed Somalia was deliberating a term extension for the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), Ali said Somalia was focused on handover of security responsibilities.
“This is false reporting. The Federal Government of Somalia is committed to taking responsibility for security in Somalia from ATMIS as it mandated UNSC resolutions 2628 and 2670 by the 31st of December 2024.”
The two-time National Security Advisor asserted that current regime is hell bent on seeing the nation stand on it’s feet again ,post-ATMIS eventuality
According to a Sunday article in The East African, Mogadishu has “launched a shuttle diplomacy to lobby the international community and influential leaders in the region to agree to the extension.”
It continued by saying that although the idea of extending the ATMIS stay band “has been mooted,” there is currently no concrete information because leaders of the Federal Government of Somalia and some other stakeholders that Mogadishu has contacted are still discussing it.
Analysts argue that the calls for a new exit date arise out of the reality that Somalia has not built and equipped its security forces to deal with defending the fragile country that has been in continuous conflict since 1991. Some of the Troops Contributing Countries include Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, Burundi and Ethiopia. Early this year, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met Kenya President William Ruto, Djibouti’s Omar Guelleh and Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who agreed to send more soldiers to the country.
ATMIS is expected to end its two year mandate in Somalia in December 31, 2024.
