Uganda Begins Somalia Withdrawal, Ending a 20-Year African Union Deployment
Uganda has begun withdrawing troops from Somalia, opening the final chapter of a military deployment that helped drive al-Shabab from Mogadishu and sustained successive African Union missions for nearly two decades. The first soldiers have already returned home, and Kampala says every Ugandan force will leave by the end of 2027.
The Uganda People’s Defence Forces announced the drawdown on Monday, November 2. Troops serving under a bilateral agreement with Somalia will leave first, with that phase expected to finish within days. Uganda will then remove roughly 4,500 soldiers serving in the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia, or AUSSOM, according to Reuters and Ugandan state media.
“The first cohort of troops under the phased withdrawal operation have already arrived back in Uganda,” military spokesperson Col. Chris Magezi said in the official military statement. Uganda first entered Somalia in March 2007, becoming the first country to contribute soldiers to the African Union mission then known as AMISOM.
Photo credit, source and license: AMISOM Public Information / Mukhtar Nuur via Wikimedia Commons · CC0.
The deployment began when al-Shabab controlled large parts of Mogadishu and attacked markets, government offices and public spaces. Ugandan forces, joined by troops from Burundi, Kenya and other African states, helped push the armed group out of the capital and several major towns. Uganda has never published a complete casualty count for its soldiers, but the mission cost many lives.
Kampala presents the withdrawal as a transfer of responsibility rather than an abandonment. Magezi said the exit would allow Somali forces to assume full responsibility for national security. That principle matters. Somalia cannot remain indefinitely dependent on foreign troops, and a successful handover would mark a real advance in national sovereignty.
But sovereignty requires capacity. Al-Shabab still controls territory in central and southern Somalia and continues to conduct bombings, assaults and ambushes against military and civilian targets. AUSSOM warned in an October 31 letter that Uganda’s withdrawal could leave parts of Lower Shabelle exposed to renewed attacks, Reuters reported after two diplomatic sources verified the document.
Somali State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali Omar offered a measured response: “Things are not dire now, but it could create problems if their troops suddenly pull out.” The phased timetable reduces that immediate risk, yet the underlying security gap remains.
Photo credit, source and license: AMISOM Public Information / John Rose via Wikimedia Commons · CC0.
The military transition also arrives during a broader international retreat. The United Nations Transitional Assistance Mission in Somalia closed on October 31 after more than three decades of successive political missions. Somali authorities called that closure a milestone in their ability to manage national affairs. Opposition figures warned that it came while President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s mandate remains contested and al-Shabab continues its insurgency.
Uganda’s exit is not the same as the U.N. mission’s closure, but together they transfer more responsibility to institutions still under intense pressure. U.N. aid agencies will remain, and a separate U.N. office will continue supporting African Union troops and Somali security units with transport and supplies. Those mechanisms cannot replace soldiers in vulnerable districts.
Funding has accelerated the transition. The United States informed the African Union in July that it would not support renewing AUSSOM’s mandate before the Security Council in December, the Daily Monitor reported. The U.N. support office also imposed a 25 percent cut affecting frontline operations. A mission built around external financing now faces the consequences of donors withdrawing faster than Somalia can replace them.
That does not make permanent foreign deployment the answer. It makes a planned, accountable handover essential. Somalia’s government and the African Union need to publish a district-by-district transition plan, explain which units will replace Ugandan forces and guarantee that soldiers receive the logistics, pay and political backing required to hold territory.
Uganda also owes its public a transparent accounting of the deployment: how many soldiers served, how many were killed or wounded, what the operation cost and what commitments remain through 2027. Regional solidarity should not require secrecy about sacrifice.
The withdrawal therefore carries two truths at once. It ends a long foreign military presence and gives Somalia a chance to exercise greater control over its own security. It also removes one of the most experienced forces confronting al-Shabab. Whether the transition becomes a sovereign advance or a dangerous vacuum will depend on what Somalia, Uganda and the African Union build before the final troops leave.
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