MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – The United Nations is secretly outlining way forward for the African Union peacekeepers in Somalia as the decade long mission faces uncertainty over its future weeks after US troops were removed from the country, which is still beset by Islamist insurgency.
UN Secretary General António Guterres deployed a fact finding mission to Somalia on August last year to provide recommendations on future of 19,000 African Union force, which is currently undergoing a phased exit from Somalia.
António Guterres gave the team three options on determining the destiny of the African Union peacekeeping mission, report says. The team recommended the replacement of AMISOM by UN peacekeepers to reach goals set for the African Union and secure donors’ funding for the mission.
African countries contributing their troops to the mission had earlier urged the UN to take over responsibility for funding AMISOM through UN Security Council.
Authors who wrote the recommendations also proposed other option that a joint AU-UN mission is established while the third alternative would be based on the G5 Sahel model, a collective force from a number of African countries fighting Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb alongside French troops.
The African Union has not been given an opportunity to engage in consultations over the future of its peacekeeping mission in Somalia and it has reportedly refused to cooperate with the UN fact-finding mission.
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