African Union calls emergency meeting as US ends Somalia army funds

The African Union called an emergency meeting on its military mission in Somalia on Friday after Washington announced it would end critical funding over the lack of progress against Islamist insurgents.

Somalia has been battling the Al-Shabaab insurgency for around two decades, but the Islamist group still controls vast swathes of the country.

The African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) is the leading force supporting the Somali army, providing roughly 12,000 troops.

But in a letter to the AU dated July 1, Washington said it was ending payments to the UN Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS), which provides the bulk of funding to AUSSOM, at the end of this year.

The letter was confirmed by a senior African diplomat to the AU, who said the decision was "irreversible" and the mission is "finished".

The AU Commission convened an "emergency meeting on the future of AUSSOM" on Friday, according to a document seen by AFP.

"Without UN logistics, which were funded by the US... we will have to draw a line under our mission in Somalia," the diplomat told AFP, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to talk to the media.

In the July 1 letter, Washington said it would also block any further UN logistical support to AUSSOM at the Security Council.

The US has provided nearly $2 billion to UN missions in Somalia since 2007, and more than $1.6 billion for African troops deployed in Somalia, as well as "hundreds of millions to Somali security forces, and billions more in humanitarian and development assistance," it said.

The letter accused Somalia's government of failing to "sustain progress against al-Shabaab, take ownership of its security functions, or undertake serious security sector reform".

There was no immediate response to requests for comment from the AU or the Somali government.

Somalia is deeply fragmented and currently in the midst of another political crisis.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had the constitution changed earlier this year, extending his term by a year after it expired on May 15.

Opposition parties and regional governments rejected the changes, leading to violent clashes in several parts of the country, including the capital, Mogadishu.

Mohamud oversaw progress against Al-Shabaab with a successful large-scale offensive after he took office in 2022.

But much of the gains were later lost and the insurgency still has control of swathes of central and southern Somalia.

"Somalia forces were supposed to gradually take responsibility for security, but it's not happening. The political elite is too busy infighting," said Zekarias Beshah, an analyst with the Amani Africa think-tank in Ethiopia.

"One cannot rule out a major advance by Al-Shabaab," he added.