AMISOM was first deployed in Somalia in 2007. It replaced another African mission that was called IGADSOM, a peacekeeping force that was sent by the East African Grouping IGAD or the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, which replaced an earlier NGO that used to be called IGADD or the Intergovernmental Authority for Droughts and Desertification, which was created in 1986, but which miserably failed to address the original mission of combatting desertification and droughts in the region.
Both IGAD and IGADD consist of Horn African and East African countries. They include the victim, Somalia, which had no say in the matters of the organization, Djibouti its seat, Ethiopia, its major powerhouse, Sudan, a country as messed up as Somalia, Uganda, South Sudan, another conflicted country, Eritrea, and Kenya, still another country, which has deep interests in Somalia.
IGAD was converted to a security institution as it does little or none on development in the region. Its first activity was to send a large contingent of Ethiopian forces, the only contingent of IGADSOM, into Somalia in 2006. This Ethiopian contingent was pushed out by a popular Somali uprising in early 2007. They were replaced by AMISOM or the African Union Mission in Somalia in that same year.
AMISOM was replaced by another African Union mission called the African Union Transitional Mission in Somalia (ATMIS). These missions all share one common factor – failure in their missions. ATMIS is supposed to leave the country at the end of 2024, but it is now clear that the African Union does not want to or will not leave the country.
It has already created a new mission to start operations in the country on January 1st, 2025. The new mission is to be called the African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (Aussom). The African Union must be choking! Why do they want to repeat the same failed efforts of over 17 years?
But perhaps, they did not fail. They are in the country to ensure it does not rise again. As long as they are present in the country, the Somali National Army would........