Biden’s decision came hours after former Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud won the country’s presidency again, in a vote by parliamentarians, on Sunday, amid international hopes that the new president would seek to resolve crises after years of political and security instability.
In mid-December 2020, the US Department of Defense announced that then-President Donald Trump had ordered the withdrawal of most US forces from Somalia, with the need to complete the withdrawal by January 15, 2022, and that is what has already happened, as there were about 700 US soldiers working on training a local commando unit (DNB). To combat the terrorist Al-Shabaab movement and carry out specific operations on the ground, they were transferred to neighboring Djibouti and Kenya.
In recent months, Al-Shabab has intensified its attacks, especially through two bombings in the center of the country that killed 48 people on March 24, and then a major attack on an African Union force base last week in which 10 people were killed, according to an official toll.
Afghanistan scenario
The Somali academic, Abdul Wali Sheikh Mohammed, says that the withdrawal of US forces and the reduction of the African Union Mission contributed broadly to the expansion of the influence and penetration of the terrorist Al-Shabab movement, which has exploited the security vacuum and political polarization during the last two years in the country to provide areas of control.
Sheikh Mohammed added, in statements to “Sky News Arabia”, that the situation was heading for the worse with a trend that was prevalent with the withdrawal of the African Union mission completely due to the lack of funding and logistical support necessary to rehabilitate and train the forces, and the dispute with the administration of former President Mohamed Farmajo, before deciding The Security Council extended the mission of “AMISOM” until March 2021, then it was replaced by “Atmis”, which prevented the country from sliding into the Afghanistan scenario.
He pointed out that the international community was at loggerheads with Farmajo, who was creating obstacles to the success of any opportunities for political dialogue, as well as using the army against the opposition, bringing the country into a state of uncertainty and uncertainty and destroying trust between AMISOM and the government, which led to the failure to launch large-scale military operations. The terrorist “al-Shabab” was broken, and in parallel with that, there was a desire from Trump to regroup his soldiers abroad.
different salad
He considered that the situation is different now. There is a new president of the country who pledged in his first speech to work to bridge the distances between Somalis, not to take revenge on the supporters of the former regime, to lead Somalia in accordance with the law and the constitution, and to impose political stability, which prompted Biden to return his soldiers in order to reduce the role of the terrorist Al-Shabab movement.
He pointed out that Biden faced sharp criticism in light of Washington’s slowdown in its operations against Al-Shabaab militants, especially after seizing entire cities and massive massacres against the African Mission, the army and Somali civilians, as the US withdrawal enabled the movement’s militants to return to using military and booby-trapped vehicles in their attacks, after they These cars were the target of American raids.
He explained that the international community has provided Somalia with a lot of assistance at all levels, from budgetary support through development projects, or the war on terrorism and sponsoring the African Peacekeeping Initiative, and it is time for there to be strong internal support with the aim of reflecting all of this on Somalis, not as it was happening where it was taking over A particular elite on the capabilities of the country.
In early April, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to form a new African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, whose mission is to combat Al-Shabaab terrorism until the end of 2024.
The new force, called “Atmis”, replaced the previous force, “AMISOM” (the African Union mission in Somalia), and the number of members of this new force is 20,000 military, police and civilians, and it will be gradually reduced to zero by December 31, 2024, and will be in a first stage Reducing the number by 2,000 troops by December 31, 2022, and then successive reductions at the end of each phase (March 2023, September 2023, June 2024 and December 2024) according to the text of the resolution.
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