Uganda was the first nation to send troops to stabilize Somalia in early 2007 after the Islamic Union Courts militia was driven out of the capital Mogadishu by a combined Somali and Ethiopian force.
Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorists claimed responsibility for the July 2010 twin bombings in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, which killed 76 people watching televised world football finals.
Burundi, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia are the other nations with troops in Somalia, where the mission by African forces to quell the insurgency by Al Qaeda-linked militants is being jeopardized by funding cuts.
The European Union is trimming its financial support for a fifth year, threatening ground operations even as Shabaab insurgents regain their cross- border capabilities after a decline in attacks in neighboring Kenya last year.
Separately, Kenya, which hosts as many as 600,000 refugees mainly from neighboring Somalia, said it would close down its two biggest refugee camps because of the “very heavy” economic, security and environmental costs.
“The government of the Republic of Kenya, having taken into consideration its national security interests, has decided that hosting of refugees has to come to an end,” the Interior Ministry said in an e-mailed statement.
The Dadaab and Kakuma camps will be closed in “the shortest time possible” and the country’s Department of Refugee Affairs has been disbanded, according to the statement.
The ministry said the slow nature of repatriating refugees posed a threat because the camps gave cover to militants such as Shabaab. Tens of thousands of Somalia refugees have returned home under a voluntary repatriation programme started by Kenya, the UN and Somalia at the end of 2014.