Burundian troops under the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) have begun leaving the Horn of African nation.
The withdrawal of 2,000 troops started on Tuesday, when the peacekeeping mission handed over an operating base in Hirshabelle State to the Somalian army, ATMIS said in a statement.
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Binyenimana, the Commander of the Cadale Forward Operating Base (FOB), said all the troops would have left Somalia by the end of June.
Somali National Army Commander Major Bashir Ahmed will now be in charge of the operating base in Hirshabelle as ATMIS seeks to “return control back to the Federal Republic of Somalia”.
Sacrifice
Last Friday, a delegation of the United Nations and African Union (AU) officials inspected the Cadale operating base ahead of the handover.
The delegation was led by the AU Special Representative to Somalia and Head of ATMIS, Ambassador Mohamed El-Amine Souef, and the Head of the United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS), Assistant Secretary General Aisa Kirabo Kacyira.
Kayicira commended the Burundian soldiers for their contribution to Somalia's stabilisation.
"You are drawing down with dignity and a sense of achievement. We want to thank you for having done a hard job of sacrificing yourselves. I am aware that along the way troops lost their lives and we honour them today,” she said while addressing the soldiers on Friday.
DRC exit
The Cadale operating base is located along the Somalian coastline, north of the capital Mogadishu.
The withdrawal of Burundian soldiers from Somalia comes a day after the United Nations said it had initiated its peacekeeping mission’s exit from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The head of the peacekeeping team, Bintou Keita, said the withdrawal of the forces comes after the “achievement of the minimum conditions of the transition plan”.
