The UN Security Council has thus authorised “the Member States of the African Union to maintain the deployment of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) until 31 March 2022”.

The decision reached under Resolution 2614/2021 grants the peacekeeping force the breathing space it requires as Somalia and the African Union negotiate over the force’s complete withdrawal or rebranding as an AU-UN hybrid mission.

The UN Security Council has thus authorised “the Member States of the African Union to maintain the deployment of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) until 31 March 2022”.

Further, it “authorises Amisom to take all necessary measures in full compliance with participating States’ obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and in full respect of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and unity of Somalia, to carry out its mandate, as set out.”

The resolution to add three months to Amisom, whose mandate was to expire on December 31, is meant to avoid a vacuum which might be filled by power struggles, identity politics, and organized violence.

Since Somalia’s central government collapsed in 1991, there have been various political power struggles geared towards the control of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and later the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS). In 2012, these power struggles expanded to the emerging regional administrations or Federal Member States (FMS).

Also, there was armed conflict as a result of identity politics or, more broadly, the socio-cultural dimensions of Somali society. This is characterised by clan dynamics where conflict between clans, sub-clans, sub-sub-clans, etc., as providers of security, justice, and employment is the norm.

In south-central Somalia, Amisom helped regulate economy-inspired organized violence revolving around the trading of khat, charcoal, sugar, taxation, extortion, and the privatization of security. Inevitably, there sprung up a struggle to control key commercial conveyor belts towards these economic ends such as seaports, airports, and roadways.

This new resolution means that Amisom will continue tamping down such possible conflicts while carrying out operations against the Al-Shabaab militant group as it awaits a formal deal between Mogadishu and the African Union on whether the Mission should exit, restructure or be reorganised as a hybrid AU-UN force with civilian components.

Amisom, composed of Kenyan, Ethiopian, Burundian, Ugandan and Djiboutian troops, has been in Somalia since 2007 when they helped establish the then transitional federal government.

Credited with pushing back Al-Shabaab, they have helped liberate a number of towns in Somalia including the port city of Kismayu.

However, critics charge that the lack of rebuilding Somalia institutions has made the country almost dependent on Amisom for its own functioning.

Source: The Daily Monitor