UN Packs Up in Somalia as the Clinics Shut Down

The United Nations Transitional Assistance Mission in Somalia, UNTMIS, ceased operations on Saturday, ending more than three decades of political engagement in a country still split by rival claimants to power and an armed insurgency. The mission announced the closure in a statement on X. Nobody in the statement explained who steps in to do what it did.

The timing tells its own story. In August, the UN children's agency said 205 health and nutrition facilities in Somalia had closed because of aid cuts. Two hundred and five. The people who relied on those clinics weren't consulted about the funding decisions made far from Mogadishu, and they weren't invited to the farewell ceremony either.

Who Has the Power

The closure followed what the mission called a two-year transition requested by the Somali government. Responsibilities are being handed to Somali institutions, UN agencies and the UN office supporting African Union troops, under a roadmap agreed between Somalia and the UN. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's government formally requested the mission's withdrawal in 2024, after years of what the base reporting describes as sometimes strained relations and accusations of interference in domestic politics.

At Monday's farewell ceremony in Mogadishu, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Ahmed Jama called the closure a "day of victory" and said Somalia was leaving behind the "era of transition." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed Somalia's progress but called for continued international backing amid political, security and humanitarian challenges. So the officials toast each other while the challenges they name keep piling up outside the banquet hall.

What They're Calling "Order"

The political mess didn't end with the ribbon-cutting on the exit. Opposition leaders reject the government's position that constitutional changes allow President Mohamud and parliament to remain in office until 2027. Relations with some regional leaders are strained. Al-Shabab, an armed group linked to al-Qaeda, still fights government forces.

The UN mission had previously helped rival leaders reach election agreements. No replacement for that mediation role has been agreed. Mohamud has invited political opponents to talks, but major opposition groups haven't confirmed they'll attend. Rival elites bargaining over who holds office, with elections as the prize, is what the international apparatus spent three decades brokering. Those at the bottom were never at the table.

Who Gets Crushed

UN humanitarian and development agencies remain in Somalia, but their funding has been hard-hit by international aid cuts. The shuttered clinics are the visible result.

African Union troops also remain to support Somali forces against al-Shabab. Their operations depend heavily on a separate UN office, UNSOS, which provides food, fuel, medical care and transport. That lifeline could end by December 2027 under a US-backed plan to close the office, Reuters reported in September. Soldiers who can't be fed or fueled don't hold ground, and the civilians living where they're stationed absorb whatever comes next.

The pattern is plain in the facts. Outside powers arrive, build dependency, steer who bargains with whom, then leave when budgets or politics shift. The farewell speeches talk about victory. The closed clinics, the unresolved dispute over who rules until 2027, and the fuel-and-food pipeline with an expiration date say something else.