Security · Somalia · Uganda · Horn of Africa

Uganda starts pulling its troops out of Somalia after 20 years, and AU peacekeepers move to plug the gap around Mogadishu

The first soldiers from Uganda’s bilateral force are home, and all Ugandan troops are due out by the end of 2027. An AU letter says peacekeepers will leave the port of Barawe to hold four bases near the capital.

Ugandan soldiers in helmets and body armour with rifles behind sandbag and mesh barriers on a Mogadishu street — File: Ugandan AU troops on the front line in Mogadishu, 2011. Photo: AMISOM Public Information / Wikimedia Commons, CC0

By Amina Yusuf · Nairobi · Security
Published 4 Nov 2026, 05:55 Africa/Johannesburg

NAIROBI — Uganda has started bringing its soldiers home from Somalia, beginning the end of a deployment that has lasted almost 20 years. “The first cohort of troops under the phased withdrawal operation have already arrived back in Uganda,” military spokesman Col. Chris Magezi said on Monday, the Associated Press reported. The rest of the force deployed under a bilateral deal with Mogadishu will follow within days, he said.

“The UPDF will gradually withdraw all its forces in Somalia, including those currently deployed under the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) by the close of 2027,” Magezi said, the Daily Monitor reported. Army chief Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba wrote on X: “After 20 years of a lot of blood and sacrifice, we are handing over security to our Somali brothers.” A first contingent of 109 soldiers reportedly left Mogadishu on Friday, BBC News reported.

The pullout comes days after Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala, where he reportedly tried to persuade Uganda to stay longer, the BBC said. Uganda was the first country to send troops to the AU mission in 2007, and its forces helped drive al-Shabab out of Mogadishu.

Moving troops to protect the capital

To stop al-Shabab from exploiting the gap, AU peacekeepers plan to take over four bases near the capital that the Ugandan bilateral force is leaving, according to a letter from the AU mission to the UN support office in Somalia (UNSOS) obtained by AP. The letter, dated 31 October and published in part by The Somali Digest, names the bases as Sabiid-Anole, Bariire, Awdheegle and Bulonagad and calls them “very critical to Mogadishu security”. To man them, AUSSOM troops will leave Barawe, a port about 220 kilometres southwest of Mogadishu and the official capital of South West State. The letter does not say who will replace them there.

Funding shortages have sped up the withdrawal, AP reported. AUSSOM’s Security Council mandate runs to 31 December, and a 12-month transition plan is due to begin in January as US and UN support winds down, according to the BBC.

AB24’s reading from Nairobi: Somalia’s army is being asked to take over just as the money for the AU mission is drying up. Watch who holds Barawe, whether al-Shabab tests the new lines in Lower Shabelle, and what the Security Council does with AUSSOM’s mandate before 31 December.

Sources: Associated Press, 3 Nov 2026; BBC News, 2 Nov 2026; Daily Monitor, 2 Nov 2026; The Somali Digest, 3 Nov 2026.

— AB24 · Nairobi