# Uganda signals continued Military commitment to Somalia

- Link: https://www.military.africa/2026/08/uganda-signals-continued-military-commitment-to-somalia/
- Published: 2026-08-31T11:37:11+01:00
- Author: Israel Chukwuma

On August 15, 2026, Defence Minister Kiryowa Kiwanuka confidently affirmed that 
Ugandan forces would remain in Somalia through an independent bilateral security
pact, even if the multilateral African Union Support and Stabilization Mission (
AUSSOM) collapsed or wound down, keeping Kampala’s troops in the country under a
bilateral security deal with Mogadishu.

Uganda is AUSSOM’s largest troop contributor, with roughly 4,500 soldiers under 
the African Union (AU) mission’s approved deployment list. In addition, Kampala 
has a separate bilateral contingent in Somalia; Ugandan military sources put that
figure at around 2,000, though other reporting from Kampala this year has cited 
numbers as high as 4,000 to 6,000. The bilateral troops operate under a security
agreement that Uganda and Somalia signed at the end of 2024, covering deployments
that began in 2025.

The minister’s comments follow a US decision, confirmed to the AU on 1 July 2026,
to [block any renewal of United Nations logistical financing](https://www.military.africa/2026/07/us-to-withdraw-un-support-for-au-mission-in-somalia/)
for AUSSOM once the mission’s current mandate expires on 31 December 2026. That 
financing runs through the UN Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS), which supplies 
AUSSOM units with food, fuel, transport, medical evacuation, and communications.
Without it, troop-contributing countries face a hole in the sustainment chain that
has kept the AU mission running since 2009.

AUSSOM’s authorization from the UN Security Council currently extends to the end
of 2026, and its long-term concept still points toward a phased handover of security
duties to Somali forces. But the funding uncertainty has already reshaped the diplomatic
picture. From 29 to 31 July 2026, Uganda hosted an extraordinary summit in Kampala
for AUSSOM’s troop-contributing countries, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya,
Uganda and Somalia, to weigh options for the mission’s future. President Yoweri 
Museveni told the gathering that African states would keep [supporting Somalia’s](https://www.military.africa/2025/05/somalia-receives-chinese-tiger-armoured-vehicles-from-african-union/)
stabilization even if international partners pulled back funding.

The AU operation began in January 2007 as the African Union Mission in Somalia (
AMISOM), an emergency peace enforcement deployment after Ethiopia’s withdrawal from
Mogadishu. It became the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) in 
April 2022, reflecting a shift toward drawdown and transition planning. It was [rebranded again](https://www.military.africa/2025/01/amisom-transition-to-aussom/)
as AUSSOM in January 2025, this time framed around stabilization and support rather
than combat-led transition. UNSOS has backstopped the mission’s logistics across
all three names, taking over from an earlier UN support office in November 2015.

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Uganda’s own history with the mission runs the full length of that timeline. The
Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) was the first foreign army to deploy under 
AMISOM in March 2007, and it has anchored the AU presence in Mogadishu since. In
May 2026, the UPDF sent Battle Group 47 into Somalia as its latest AUSSOM rotation,
a routine but notable marker given the doubt surrounding the mission’s funding this
year.

In January 2026, Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, 
signaled plans for a full troop withdrawal,  a statement that was seen as the likely
close of Uganda’s near 2-decade role in Somalia. Kiwanuka’s August remarks reverse
that trajectory in practice, if not in name: Uganda is not leaving; it is restructuring
how it stays, moving more of its footprint onto a government-to-government footing
that does not depend on AU or UN funding cycles.

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AUSSOM troops draw allowances and non-lethal support partly through AU and donor
channels, including a €75 million package the European Union approved in April 2026
for the mission’s military component; bilateral troops rely instead on whatever 
Kampala and Mogadishu can fund directly. Kampala’s government argues the underlying
security case has not changed. Officials have warned that gains made across AMISOM,
ATMIS and AUSSOM could unravel if forces pull out of districts where Somali police
and army units are not yet ready to hold ground on their own. Al-Shabaab, the al-
Qaeda-linked group Somalia has fought for close to two decades, still controls or
contests territory in central and southern Somalia and continues to mount attacks
against Somali and AUSSOM positions.

Ethiopia has already moved a large share of its own Somalia deployment onto bilateral
terms, and Kenya’s calculus looks similar given its direct border security stakes.
Uganda’s declared intention to stay, even as AUSSOM’s UN-backed logistics run out
at year’s end, points to a Horn of Africa security architecture that increasingly
runs on overlapping bilateral deals rather than a single AU-flagged mission.

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