PREVIEW
African leaders are warning that Somalia’s security is at risk due to a funding shortfall
African leaders have warned international partners that Somalia’s security situation in its battle with the Al Shabaab terror group could regress if they don’t cough up extra cash to plug a US$180 million funding gap facing the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission (AUSSOM).
Ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi warned that Somalia could ‘relapse’ if the European Union and broader international community pulled its support.
That message was repeated in New York by African Union Commission chair Mahmoud Ali Youssouf at a summit designed to raise money for AUSSOM on 25 September.
But the pledging conference on the sidelines of the General Assembly, chaired by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and co-convened by the AU, UN and the United Kingdom, delivered plenty of rhetorical support for AUSSOM, particularly from troop-contributing neighbouring countries Ethiopia and Kenya, but little in the way of cash (Dispatches, 7/1/25, Row over troop numbers jeopardises AU mission).
While the AU has doubled the contribution from its Peace Fund to $20m, and the UK pledged $30m, the bulk of the burden is almost certain to fall on the EU and United States.
The funding shortage is, in large part, the result of an impasse after US President Donald Trump’s administration vetoed UN Security Council Resolution 2719, which would have allowed it to cover up to 75% of costs for AU-led peacekeeping operations, with the remaining 25% coming from voluntary contributions such as the EU (AC Vol 66 No 14, Politicians seek a way out of the impasse). The UNGA did not deliver a breakthrough on this.
The AU has sought to raise money from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates but so far without success.
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