Somalia willing to negotiate over AMISOM's future

The AU troops have been operating in Somalia since the start of 2007 helping Somalia restore peace [Photo: AMISOM]

MOGADISHU, Somalia - The federal government of Somalia is now willing to negotiate over the future of the African Union Mission in Somalia [AMISOM], weeks after rejecting the joint mission between United Nations [UN] and the African Union.

African Union wrote a proposal to the UN suggesting that the current peacekeepers in Somalia should be integrated with the UN, then form a hybrid mission, a move which was rejected by the government of Somalia.

But in a meeting with at least 15 representatives of the AU Peace and security council [AU-PSC], Foreign Affairs Minister Abdirizak Mohamed noted the willingness by Mogadishu to negotiate but accused AU of failing to consider the proposal by Mogadishu.

“The fact is that there is nothing to be gained without the consent of the host country. The transition plan will be the position of the Federal Government of Somalia, not only this administration, but also it is the future administration of the country,” he said.

The minister, who is a close ally of outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, noted that Somalia is ready for an amicable solution to the current quagmire, noting that an agreement to the matter is needed immediately.

“In the transition process, Somalia has insisted on its proposal being accepted. Even if our plan is adopted by AMISOM and backed by the United Nations, we will continue to negotiate for some time, but unfortunately, it has not been implemented in the first place and that is where the disagreement is,” he noted.

In various correspondences, Somalia accused AU-PSC of going against the initial agreement which demanded that the Somali Transition Plan [STP] be fully implemented. This plan, it noted, would lead to reconfiguring of AMISOM troops in Somalia.

In April 2018, the plan was endorsed by the 769th meeting of the Peace and Security Council on 30 April 2018, and subsequently presented and endorsed at a high-level meeting of the international community on security in Brussels, Belgium, on 2 May 2018.

Regrettably, its implementation has been marked by slow progress. For instance, the first phase involved three stages notably the handover of Mogadishu Stadium by AMISOM to the Federal Government, capture and stabilization of the strategic Leego town in South-West state, and opening up the Main Supply Routes [MSR] between Mogadishu and Baidoa.

The AMISOM troops are set to leave Somalia by the end of 2021 and it's on this basis that the AU initially wanted the force to be reconfigured, support Somali National Army [SNA] which would later assume security responsibilities in the country by 2023.

Al-Shabaab has been a thorn in the flesh for a couple of years, leading to the death of thousands of people including senior security officers, government officials, and innocent civilians. The militants still control large swathes of rural central and southern Somalia.

GAROWE ONLINE