Souef Mohamed El Amine assumed command of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) this weekend, seven months after his predecessor was ousted by the Somali government, now engaged in an «all-out war» against the jihadist organization Al Shabaab under the orders of President Hassan Shaykh Mohamud.
Somalia has in recent months stepped up offensives against Al Shabaab with the support of local clans and militias as part of a series of decisions taken by the president, who pledged on taking office to put the fight against terrorism at the heart of his efforts to stabilize the African country.
The country is still reeling from the October 29 double bombing in Mogadishu, which killed more than 120 people and was considered one of the bloodiest Al Shabaab attacks to date.
The immediate consequence of this escalation of the conflict is that 2022 threatens to become one of the deadliest years to date for Somalia. According to data collected by the ACLED project, which counts the victims of violence, some 1,400 people have already died so far this year, more than in 2020 and 2021.
This figure — which includes victims of Al Shabaab as well as Somali and foreign forces operating in the country and the Islamic State affiliate, which is not very active in Somalia — is well below the record of more than 2,600 dead in 2017, the year of the deadliest attack to date. The scene of that attack, which resulted in more than 500 dead and which Al Shabaab never claimed responsibility for, was precisely the same as the October double detonation.
The Comorian diplomat, former head of the regional office of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), replaces the Mozambican Francisco Madeira, declared persona non grata in April 2020 by former Prime Minister Mohamed Roble because of his strong disagreements over Roble’s management of the tremendous electoral crisis the country was going through at the time.
El Amine will also lead the handover period from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) — now under ATMIS rule — to the Somali security forces, which will end in April 2024, reports Somali news portal Goobjoog.
