Somalia and AU Race to Secure AUSSOM Funding Ahead of UN Security Council Summit

Somalia and the African Union are scrambling to secure funding for AUSSOM ahead of an upcoming UN Security Council summit, Garowe Online reported August 31, 2026, as the mission's financial and troop base erodes on multiple fronts — the US funding cutoff after AUSSOM's December 31, 2026 mandate expiry, the UNSOS drawdown already underway, and Uganda's August 28 announcement that it will fully withdraw its troops by August 2027. Mogadishu is pursuing bilateral deals with individual troop-contributing countries such as Uganda, which controls the Halane base near Mogadishu's airport, to keep forces present outside formal AU funding structures, while outreach to Arab nations for financial support has 'fallen short of what is needed.' The government now concedes AUSSOM will be needed through at least 2028, a reversal of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's October 2022 pledge to remove all foreign troops from Somalia by December 2024.