Thousands of African Union peacekeepers have been killed and hundreds more injured in Somalia since the forces began their work in that country in early 2007, the head of their mission told VOA Somali. The peacekeepers were deployed to help protect the government and installations from al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab militants.

Mohamed El-Amine Souef, the special representative of the chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia, disclosed the casualty figures during an interview last week with the "Investigative Dossier," a VOA Somali radio program.

Originally known as the African Union Mission in Somalia, the operation's first deployment in Mogadishu came in March 2007 with troops from Uganda. In April 2022, the African Union Mission changed its name to the African Union Transition Mission, or ATMIS, with a view to withdrawing from Somalia by December 2024 after Somali forces assumed security responsibilities in the country. ATMIS currently has around 19,000 peacekeepers operating in Somalia.

 

"The mission has documented around 4,000 casualties. According to the force officers who served in the mission, the casualties, including those disabled, can be as high as over 5,000," Souef said.

Souef confirmed estimated fatalities of 3,500. He said troops from Burundi and Uganda suffered the most casualties.

This is the first time that an African Union official has commented publicly about the overall casualties of peacekeepers operating in Somalia.

Souef, the former foreign minister of Comoros, said he will prioritize the families of soldiers killed in Somalia for compensation, as some of them have not yet been recognized "because of a lack of funds."

He said the troops came to Somalia with good reason because the countries that contributed troops "feel that they are close to Somalia."

"This is not like a loan that we are giving to the Somalis," he said. "I can say that we are reimbursing the Somalis because you may remember that Somalia is among the countries who got independence early in the '60s, and they supported many African countries to get their independence. They supported many African countries in terms of training, in terms of education. So, I think Somalia deserves that, and we are willing to do so."

The Somali government also paid tribute to the sacrifices of African Union peacekeepers.

Hussein Sheikh-Ali, national security adviser to the president of Somalia, said the government recognizes the work of the AU forces.

"The Somali people are in their debt," he said. "In Somalia, the areas the Somali government operated, the territories where progress has been established, they liberated with us, they protected with us, and they have lost lots of people.

"Therefore, we are grateful to them, but we want to repay them with mission accomplished. This is why the Somali forces are fighting to eliminate al-Shabab," Sheikh-Ali said.

AU forces helped Somali troops remove al-Shabab militants from Mogadishu in July 2011 after more than two years of deadly street fighting. AU and Somali forces also removed al-Shabab from all the major towns in the country.

Al-Shabab has been trying for years to unseat the internationally supported government of Somalia.

The expulsion of the militants has come at a cost. Al-Shabab has carried out complex raids on front-line operating bases, killing hundreds of AU forces. The last major attack in May 2022 claimed the lives of more than 30 peacekeepers in the town of El-Baraf.

XIGASHO:-VOA