The new African Union, known as AUSSOM, has today officially began in Somalia, as announced by the African Union’s representative to Somalia.
In a statement issued by Mohamed El-Amine Souef, the special representative of the African Union Commission Chairperson, it was confirmed that the new AUSSOM mission started in Somalia as of today, January 1, 2025.
The statement also mentioned that, according to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2767 (2024), AUSSOM will continue the successes achieved by the previous mission, ATMIS, in order to ensure that Somalia secures lasting peace and security.
This new mission includes Egypt, which has replaced Ethiopia that was part of the previous ATMIS mission, due to tensions arising over maritime disputes.
Egypt is now planning to deploy its forces into Somalia, using air and naval routes, to participate in the mission starting this year.
The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) officially began on April 1, 2022. It was a transition from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) with a mandate to support Somalia in its efforts to maintain peace and security, while gradually transferring security responsibilities to Somali security forces.
The contributing countries to ATMIS included: Uganda , Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Sierra Leone.
Burundi which had the largest number of troops announced withdrawal from the new peace keeping mission citing adequate allocation of troops contributing to the new outfit.