Latest / Best of: Features / Peacekeepers plan to take over bases near Somalia’s capital as Ugandan troops withdraw

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Peacekeepers plan to take over bases near Somalia’s capital as Ugandan troops withdraw · Best of: Features

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  Peacekeepers plan to take over bases near Somalia’s capital as Ugandan troops
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  withdraw. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice generated by Everlet. Mogadishu, Somalia the AP. Peacekeepers
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  plan to replace departing Ugandan troops at four bases near Somalia's capital
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  to prevent al Shabaab militants from exploiting a security vacuum, according to
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  a letter from the African Union Mission to the UN Support Office
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  in Somalia obtained by the Associated Press. Uganda says all its troops
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  will leave Somali by the end of twenty twenty seven, ending a
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  twenty year deployment. Those leaving now were deployed under a bilateral agreement
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  with Somalia's government. Uganda also contributes troops to the African Union peacekeeping
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  mission. Funding shortages have accelerated the withdrawal, said Farhan Isak Yusuf, Deputy
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  Executive Director of Somali Public Agenda, a Mogadishu based public policy research
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  organization. Uganda's military statement did not say why the bilateral troops were
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  being withdrawn immediately. The peacekeepers will move from Barawe, a port town
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  about two hundred and twenty kilometers, one hundred and thirty five miles,
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  southwest of Mogadishu. It is unclear who will take over the bases
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  they leave behind. Two stages of withdrawal. Ugandan announced Monday
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  that the withdrawal had begun, with the first soldiers already home. Military
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  spokesman Colonel Chris Magezi said troops deployed under the bilateral agreement would
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  finish leaving within days. Uganda's remaining forces, including its AU peacekeepers, would
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  gradually withdraw by The end of twenty twenty seven. The october thirty
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  first letter says Uganda deployed the bilateral force after an april twenty
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  twenty five summit where African leaders called for more peacekeepers to fight
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  al Shabaab. Those Ugandan troops help recapture and hold territory over the
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  next seventeen months. The African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somali
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  plans to take over four of the positions Sabadanol, Barire, Audhegal, and
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  Bolog, during troop rotations scheduled for November. The letter describes the locations
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  as critical to protecting Mogadishu. Securing the bases left behind Somali
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  army Commander Major General Ibrahim Mohammed Mohamud visited troops in Baraway on
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  Monday, receiving briefings on local security, according to an Army statement. He
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  instructed troops to remain on high alert and intensify operations against Al
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  Shabaab. The statement did not say whether Somali soldiers would take over
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  the AU bases. Somali and African Union troop captured Baraway from Al
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  Shabaab in twenty fourteen. The militants had used its port to bring
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  in fighters and weapons and export charcoal to finance their operations. Yusuf
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  said the Somali army lacks resources and faces a difficult security environment.
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  Lower Shabel, where the Ugandan troops now withdrawing were stationed, is critical
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  to protecting Mogadishu, he said. Uganda's withdrawal plans come just after the
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  United Nations political mission in Somali closed, ending more than three decades
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  of successive missions that helped rebuild the country and mediate political disputes.
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  United Nations aid agencies remain in Somalia. A separate support office continues
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  providing supplies and transport to African Union peacekeepers and some Somali security
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  forces. Somali authorities have portrayed the political mission's closure as a milestone
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  toward managing their own affairs, but it comes amid a dispute over
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  the President's right to remain in office and continuing militant attacks. Last
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  week, an officer who survived an ambush said at least 20 Somali
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  soldiers were killed in the Bay region. The government acknowledged damage to
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  military vehicles but disclosed no troop casualties.