Somalia Receives 7 Military Bases from ATMIS

Citizens at the site of an explosion that targeted a hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in 2022. (AFP)
Citizens at the site of an explosion that targeted a hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in 2022. (AFP)
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Somalia Receives 7 Military Bases from ATMIS

Citizens at the site of an explosion that targeted a hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in 2022. (AFP)
Citizens at the site of an explosion that targeted a hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in 2022. (AFP)

The African Transitional Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) said it has completed the first phase of a troop reduction aimed at eventually putting security fully in the hands of the national army and police.

It said in a statement that a total of seven bases had been handed over to Somali security forces, enabling the drawdown of 2,000 troops by the June 30 deadline.

ATMIS chief logistics officer Bosco Sibondavyi described the handover as an "important milestone" in the implementation of the Somalia Transition Plan and UN Security Council resolutions on the transfer of security responsibility, AFP reported.

The Security Council on Tuesday renewed for six months its authorization of the AU force, which has a deadline of the end of September for the departure of a further 3,000 soldiers.

The ATMIS contingent had included over 19,000 soldiers and police officers from several African nations including Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, but will have to be reduced to zero by the end of 2024.

In April 2022, the Council approved the replacement of AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia), which had been set up in 2007, by ATMIS, a mission with a reinforced mandate to fight Al-Shabaab militants.

The group, which has links with Al-Qaeda, has been waging a bloody insurgency against the fragile internationally backed government in Mogadishu for more than 15 years.

Its fighters continue to carry out deadly attacks despite a major offensive launched last August by pro-government forces, backed by the AU force and US air strikes.

In the deadliest most recent attack, 54 Ugandan peacekeepers were killed in late May when Al-Shabaab militants stormed an AU base southwest of the capital.



Israeli Airstrike on Apartment Building in Lebanese Coastal Town Kills at Least 1

 A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Airstrike on Apartment Building in Lebanese Coastal Town Kills at Least 1

 A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)

An Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in a coastal town south of Beirut killed at least one person, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

The ministry said 20 others were wounded in the strike Tuesday in Jiyeh, around 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the port of Sidon.

The attack hit an area that has not been a regular target of Israeli military operations and had not received prior evacuation warnings.

“It felt like it was inside the house,” Malika Al Hajj, an elderly woman living in the area, told The Associated Press. “I ran away — I don’t even know which neighbor brought me out, because everything was black. You couldn’t see anything.”

Once outside, Hajj said she discovered that the strike had hit the nearby building where her nephews live.

“Men, women and children” live inside, she said. “I just want to be reassured. I saw some of them, but the others, they told me, were taken to the hospital."

At the site of the strike, the building’s skeletal frame stands amid the rubble, its concrete shattered, windows blown out and metal twisted from the impact.

Families were seen leaving the area, carrying what belongings they could gather.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed at least 3,013 people and injured 13,553 others since Oct. 2023, the Lebanese government said on Tuesday.