The head of the Ugandan Army announces that his forces will leave Somalia in 2027 after 20 years of fighting Al Shabaab

The head of the Ugandan Army, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has announced the withdrawal of all Ugandan support troops in Somalia on August 1, 2027, which will mark twenty years of military support for the Somali Army in the fight against the jihadist organization Al Shabaab, the affiliate of Al Qaeda in the African country.

General Kainerugaba, son of the country’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has proclaimed the complete withdrawal of the Ugandan contingent by that date. From then on, “there will be no more forces of the Ugandan Army in Somalia,” he stated in a message published on social networks.

There is still no confirmation of this announcement from President Museveni, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and his son is known for his eccentric statements on social networks, which he sometimes ends up retracting.

However, Somali and Ugandan media reported at the time that Museveni has asked his Somali counterpart, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, to resolve the numerous internal crises he has open with separatist states or else he will withdraw his forces from the country.

Uganda was the first African country to deploy troops to Somalia under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), sending its first contingent in March 2007.

Ugandan troops subsequently served under AMISOM’s successor, the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), and are now part of the African Union Stabilization and Support Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM).

Uganda currently leads AUSSOM Sector One, which covers Banadir, including parts of Mogadishu and areas of the neighboring Lower Shabelle region.

Adding insult to injury, the future of the entire AUSSOM peacekeeping mission is under serious operational strain following the United States’ decision to end financial and logistical support to the United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS), the critical logistics mechanism that provides fuel, rations, medical evacuations and equipment transportation to African Union forces.