Somalia

The United Nations Security Council decided Friday to cut 1,000 troops from a regional peacekeeping force in Somalia, despite a rise in attacks by the Al-Shabaab militia in Mogadishu. The council voted unanimously to draw down the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), but left the door open for the council to revisit that decision if violence worsens. … The force's mandate was extended for a year.

Despite Somalia’s persistent security threats, recurrent political crises, capacity constraints and the difficulties in navigating political obstacles to its reform agenda, the Horn of Africa country remains on a “positive trajectory,” the UN Security Council was told on Wednesday.

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the civil societies have resolved to come up with programmes that will help empower citizens to actively participate in the affairs of the country.

Somalia’s al Shabaab stormed a government building, detonating a suicide car bomb in the heart of Mogadishu with at least 15 people, including an assistant minister, killed during the ensuing gun battle.

A human rights group says 14 civilians were killed during five U.S. airstrikes in Somalia in the last two years, an allegation the U.S. military strongly denies.

The Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday that he “strongly condemns the deadly terrorist attacks” that took place in the Somali capital Mogadishu late on Thursday local time, which reportedly killed more than 20 people, with scores injured.

The African Union is on the spot over a request by Burundi and Somalia to convene an urgent summit of troop contributing countries to discuss withdrawal of the African Union Mission in Somalia. The continental body has not responded, amid a threat by an angry Bujumbura to withdraw all its 5,432 troops from the Amisom.

Burundi and Somalia have called for an emergency summit to discuss the contested withdrawal of 1,000 Burundian troops from the Horn of Africa nation before the end of the month. The African Union is gradually scaling back its Amisom force in troubled Somalia, and announced late last year that the Burundian soldiers must leave by the end of February. Burundi has strongly opposed the drawdown of its troops, … .