UN political mission ends in Somalia with no agreed replacement to handle election dispute

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The United Nations’ political mission in Somalia ends Saturday, closing more than three decades of successive U.N. missions that helped rebuild a country shattered by civil war and leaving no agreed replacement to help rival leaders resolve disputes.

The government calls the closure a milestone in Somalia’s ability to manage its own affairs. But opposition figures and analysts warn that it comes at a time when the president’s right to remain in office is contested, al-Qaida-linked militants fight on and drought deepens humanitarian needs.

Somalia's government asked the U.N. to close the mission in 2024 . The Security Council approved a two-year handover of its work to Somali institutions and other U.N. bodies.

The departing United Nations Transitional Assistance Mission in Somalia has advised Somali leaders and helped resolve political disputes.

African Union troops will continue supporting Somali forces fighting militants, and U.N. aid agencies will remain in the country.

A separate U.N. office will continue providing supplies, transport and other support to African Union troops and some Somali security units.

Somalia’s central government collapsed after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Fighting among rival clan-based factions left the country without a functioning central government as war and hunger devastated communities.

The United States launched Operation Restore Hope in 1992 to protect famine relief deliveries. The following year, 18 American soldiers died in the “Black Hawk Down” battle in Mogadishu, helping bring that U.S. military mission to its end.

After U.N. peacekeepers withdrew in March 1995 without securing a lasting political settlement, the organization established a civilian political office to encourage reconciliation.

That office helped Somali leaders end the country’s formal transitional period in 2012, when a provisional constitution was adopted, a new federal parliament was formed and a president was elected.

Successive U.N. political missions supported elections, justice institutions and regional administrations that share power with the national government. In 2016, the mission supported a regional team helping implement a ceasefire between forces from two rival regional administrations, Puntland and Galmudug, in central Somalia.

But rebuilding institutions has not resolved disputes over political authority or secured government control across the country.

Al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked group, controls large rural areas and carries out attacks in Mogadishu and other cities. An officer who survived an ambush in southern Somalia told the AP that at least 20 soldiers were killed in the latest attack on Monday. The government disclosed no troop casualties, and the casualty figures could not be independently verified.

Recurring drought and flooding compound the insecurity. Families have fled failed harvests and dead livestock as hunger deepens and aid funding shrinks .

A dispute remains over whether President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and parliament can legally stay in office.

Under the previous four-year terms, Mohamud’s mandate was due to end May 15 and parliament’s on April 14. Parliament approved constitutional changes extending both terms to five years. The government says those changes allow the current president and lawmakers to remain in office until 2027.

Opposition leaders reject applying the changes to sitting officeholders and say their mandates have expired.

In June, opposition supporters and security forces clashed in Mogadishu ahead of a planned protest over alleged constitutional violations and efforts to extend Mohamud’s tenure. Residents reported heavy gunfire and fled their homes.

James Swan, then the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative, sought to broker an electoral agreement through separate meetings with the government, opposition leaders and regional administrations. Mission-backed talks in July ended without resolving the dispute.

Mohamed Husein Gaas, director of the Mogadishu-based RAAD Peace Research Institute, said the U.N. mission's departure would remove a key mediation channel.

“Somalia could find itself confronting a political crisis without an agreed mechanism to contain it,” he told the AP.

He warned that disagreements could produce competing claims of legitimacy and fracture security coordination.

In a September letter seen by the AP, the opposition Somali Future Council requested an international mediation mechanism after the mission closes.

Deputy Prime Minister Salah Ahmed Jama offered a different assessment at Monday’s farewell ceremony in Mogadishu.

“The ceremony signifies that Somalia has moved beyond the transitional period and difficult circumstances,” Jama said.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged significant political, security and humanitarian challenges in a statement marking the closure and called for sustained international support.

Mohamud has invited political leaders to election talks Nov. 14–18, but the main opposition groups have yet to confirm they will attend. By then, the U.N. political mission that helped mediate between them will have closed.