{"id":4035,"date":"2026-01-27T14:10:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/uganda-we-plan-to-withdraw-our-troops-from-somalia"},"modified":"2026-01-27T15:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T15:22:17","slug":"uganda-we-plan-to-withdraw-our-troops-from-somalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/uganda-we-plan-to-withdraw-our-troops-from-somalia","title":{"rendered":"Uganda: we Plan to Withdraw our Troops from Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>Ugandan Defence Forces commander Muhoozi Kainerugaba has announced that Uganda plans to withdraw its troops taking part in peacekeeping operations in Somalia, after nearly two decades of deployment under African Union missions.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement posted Monday on the X platform, Kainerugaba said: \u201cAfter 19 years in Somalia, we intend to fully withdraw from that country soon,\u201d signalling a possible shift in Uganda\u2019s longstanding role within the African Union mission.<\/p>\n<p>However, neither Uganda\u2019s Ministry of Defence nor the army leadership has so far issued an official statement confirming the withdrawal, leaving uncertainty over whether the army chief\u2019s comments \u2014 he is also the son of the Ugandan president \u2014 reflect an adopted government policy or merely an initial stance.<\/p>\n<p><b>Key role since 2007<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Uganda has been one of the largest and longest-serving contributors to peacekeeping in Somalia. It deployed its first military units in 2007 to support the transitional government and confront Al-Shabaab. Since then, Ugandan forces have secured strategic sites in Mogadishu and taken part in joint operations against armed groups.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) transitioned into the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), intended to gradually transfer security responsibilities to Somali forces through a phased drawdown of foreign troops. Over the years, Uganda has deployed thousands of soldiers in rotating cycles, many of whom have faced repeated attacks from Al-Shabaab.<\/p>\n<p>Despite security challenges and casualties, Kampala has remained committed to supporting Somalia\u2019s stabilization and regional security, alongside other contributing countries and international partners.<\/p>\n<p>However, Kainerugaba\u2019s remarks raise questions about the readiness of Somali forces to assume full security responsibility, at a time when ATMIS troop reductions continue according to a timetable agreed with the African Union and the United Nations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Africa<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press. Ugandan Defence Forces commander Muhoozi Kainerugaba has announced that Uganda plans to withdraw its troops taking part in peacekeeping operations in Somalia, after nearly two decades of deployment under African Union missions. In a statement posted Monday on the X platform, Kainerugaba said: \u201cAfter 19 years in Somalia, we intend to fully withdraw from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-4035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-policy","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Uganda: we Plan to Withdraw our Troops from Somalia - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. Ugandan Defence Forces commander Muhoozi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/uganda-we-plan-to-withdraw-our-troops-from-somalia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Uganda: we Plan to Withdraw our Troops from Somalia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. 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