From Amisom to Atmis: Will new AU mission in Somalia succeed?

Amisom guard

Kenyan soldiers serving under Amisom guard Kismayo Sea Port in Somalia on October 6, 2021. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

For 15 years, African soldiers have rotated through Somalia as part of a 20,000-strong force mandated by the United Nations to protect the fragile central government from an Islamist insurgency.

But the mission is winding up, with a transitional force given less than two years to hand over security responsibilities to Somalia's national army and withdraw from the troubled country. Will it work?