Somalia’s newest peacekeeping mission officially began on January 1, but the future of the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia, known as AUSSOM, is uncertain as the United Nations and African Union struggle to secure financing.
“We are urging for predictable funding for AUSSOM. I hope our voices will be heard by the Security Council,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told the 38th African Union Summit in mid-February.
The 32-month-long African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) and its predecessor, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), both depended on international donors. That funding structure was often unpredictable and, said critics, inadequate to the task.
ATMIS, for example, was operating at a deficit of $150 million by October 2024 as a result of donor nation cutbacks. The funding strategy for AUSSOM calls for the United Nations to support 75% of the mission. The AU and U.N. will make up the remaining 25% through international donations.
The Security Council resolution setting up the AUSSOM funding commits the AU and U.N. to consider “all viable options” in the case the program experiences “significant shortfalls in resource mobilization.” The resolution that created AUSSOM in December also gave the parties six months to put their financing plan into effect.
AUSSOM includes nearly all the nations that participated in ATMIS. Burundi opted out. Egypt has offered to join the new mission. Ethiopia has also offered troops, but tensions over Ethiopia’s port deal with semiautonomous Somaliland have raised questions about whether Somalia will allow Ethiopia to participate.
So far, financing for the AUSSOM mission remains unclear.
“While there appears to be broad agreement on the deployment of the AUSSOM, there is a divergence of views among Council members regarding how the mission should be financed,” the U.N. Security Council reported in a December analysis.
AUSSOM supporters have urged the U.N. to solve the mission’s funding issues quickly to avoid disrupting activity and giving al-Shabaab and other terrorist groups room to grow.
The Security Council will meet in May to review the progress on setting up a stable financial system for the AUSSOM. The current plan is to review the AU’s ability to hold up its end of the financial bargain. The second meeting will look at the ability of the U.N. to purpose funds freed up by reorganizing its Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS).
In the meantime, the AU continues to pay the cost of AUSSOM troops on the ground in Somalia by reimbursing nations that contribute troops. Last October, the AU Peace and Security Council recommended drawing on interest from the AU Peace Fund to pay its portion of the AUSSOM operations.
Observers say it’s unclear where the money will come from.
“It’s also uncertain whether a contingency funding plan exists should the intended hybrid model not materialize after June,” analysts South Africa’s Institute for Strategic Studies wrote.
Guterres said the U.N. will stand by the AU and Somalia in their fight to rein in al-Shabaab.
“On all fronts, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the African Union to advance security, stability, human rights and rule of law,” Guterres said.
