Monday, June 23, 2025 – HAN
The African Union (AU) has officially announced that its new peacekeeping mission in Somalia — the AU Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) — will become fully operational by July 2025, formally replacing ATMIS, whose mandate ended on January 1, 2025.
This new mission represents the third phase of Somalia’s ongoing stabilization strategy. It is designed to reinforce Somali-led leadership, provide support to Somali security forces, weaken Al-Shabaab, stabilize areas liberated from the group, and prepare Somalia to fully assume responsibility for its national security by December 2029.
In June, the African Union signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with six troop- and police-contributing countries: Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. These countries will play crucial roles in both security operations and strategic support for the mission.
According to the AU, the MoUs will be submitted to its legal office for review before formal signatures are made. The agreements build upon earlier technical discussions held in Addis Ababa and Kampala, where the roadmap for AUSSOM was developed.
AUSSOM has been authorized to deploy up to 12,000 personnel, including 680 police officers. However, the mission aims to gradually reduce this number by the end of 2025, in line with evolving security conditions.
Despite these preparations, the mission is currently facing a serious financial shortfall. Between January and June 2025, AUSSOM required $90.4 million in funding but received only $16.7 million, resulting in a deficit of $73.7 million.
To address this challenge, a new hybrid funding model has been proposed. This model would enable up to 75% of the annual mission budget to be financed through UN-assessed contributions from member states, starting July 1, 2025, as outlined in UN Security Council Resolution 2719 (2023).
However, the implementation of this model depended on a critical decision that was expected by May 15, 2025 — a deadline that passed without resolution, leaving the mission’s financial stability in doubt.
The launch of AUSSOM comes amid a surge in Al-Shabaab attacks and territorial advances. In response, troop-contributing countries met in Uganda in April 2025, where they called for an additional deployment of 8,000 soldiers to reinforce the mission and respond to the worsening security landscape.
