Uganda withdraws its troops from Somalia as fight against rebels persists

But first, Uganda is pulling its troops out of Somalia. It was the first country to send deployments to help Mogadishu when the African Union set up an international military mission back in 2007 to battle al-Shabaab extremist rebels. Now, since then, Kampala has sent in thousands of soldiers to Somalia. About 4,500 to about 6,000 were in the country as part of the latest African Union mission, with another 2,000 to 2,500 under a separate... bilateral agreement. But that is to be no more. With me now, four more, is Anwar Bashir, an executive director of the East Africa Institute for Peace and Governance, who joins me from Nairobi. Anwar, thanks so much for joining me to break this down. So first of all, you know, why is Uganda pulling out now? And where does that fit into the apparent, like, overall dwindling of international support for Somalia with its security troubles? First, thank you so much for having me. All right. The African Peacekeeping Force, particularly the Ugandan Force, has been present in Somalia since 2007, almost two decades. on helping Somali government to recapture many parts in the country. They protected even the government headquarters and very important positions. But this time, due to financial constraints, they decided to leave the country. And not only the African Peacekeeping Force, but also United Nations office has been closed a few days ago. Due to many reasons, the first reason is financial inadequacy, especially the support from the United States of America under the leadership of Trump, who always focus on the internal issues under his mantra, America make great again. The conflicts in Ukraine and Russia, the one in the Middle East, all of them has created a financial constraint. And so due to that, the reasons are So what does this mean for Somalia? Is it ready to take pole position in the pushback against al-Shabaab without outside help? I think regarding on the Somali National Army, now it's almost 20,000. So in terms of a number, I think that they exceed Al-Shabaab fighters. But when it comes to replacing the African Union Peacekeeping Force, I think it will take a time due to the dependency mentality. Lack of sometimes more advanced training, currently they receive a training from many countries including the Turk and I think that in the short run maybe some kind of gap and some challenges they will face, but in the long run I am very optimistic and they will take over their responsibility. So Somalia is set for parliamentary and presidential elections next April and May. How far do you reckon they're likely to contribute to helping anchoring Somalia's bid for stability? The incumbent administration in Somalia It has ended, it is a mandate, the past May, this year, and without placing a road map for the upcoming election, and that has created a lot of opposition against the government to expedite the process, and due to that, it created some political instability, and The government. A few times, you know, had a confrontation with the opposition groups. But when it comes to the reality of the current administration, I think there is a huge disagreement between the Philo-Somali administration as well as the opposition groups due to the government's Establishment of Justice and Solidarity Partners, it's called JSP, and they, you know, I always try to impose a single constituency where the party side is who is competing for the seat. So this has created an uproar about the transparency as well as the neutrality. So I'm positive always, but this needs a lot of preparation and trust between the current administration in Philo-Somalia as well as the opposition. Thank you so much, Anwar Bashir there, giving us a bit of an insight into the implications of Uganda's pullout from Somalia.