The United States has agreed to give the United Nations a 12-month window to wind down its support for Somalia peacekeepers, according to a diplomatic note seen by Reuters, delaying a funding cutoff that could otherwise have taken effect at the end of December.

The note, shared with embassies last week, says the United States will back a 12-month drawdown followed by the liquidation of the UN Support Office in Somalia, known as UNSOS. Two diplomatic sources and a Somali government source told Reuters that the 12-month countdown would begin in January, and a State Department spokesperson confirmed that Washington will no longer fund or support the office, whose total budget stands at around $500 million, according to Reuters.

UNSOS provides the logistics that keep the African Union force running: food, water, fuel, medical services, and the movement of troops. The peacekeeping force, formally the AU Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), replaced the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia in January 2025. The UN Security Council has authorized up to 11,826 uniformed personnel, including 680 police officers, under AUSSOM through December 31, 2026, according to somaliatoday.com, which reviewed the mandate.

A mission running on borrowed time

Reuters reported in July that Washington, increasingly frustrated with the fragile administration in Mogadishu, planned to use its clout to block the UN from supporting the African Union force starting next year, a sharp pullback by an administration that has stepped away from many international commitments. Without the new 12-month window, funding could have stopped at the end of December, when the mandate of the UN support office expires. The decision buys Mogadishu and its partners more time to line up other backers, but diplomats caution that the threat hanging over the peacekeeping force's future has not lifted.

AUSSOM props up Somalia's fragile government and supports its forces against al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked militant group that controls wide stretches of the countryside. Analysts have warned that any weakening of the mission would badly undermine the government in Mogadishu and deepen instability in a combustible region bordering the Red Sea.

Afyare Elmi, a professor at the City University of Mogadishu, told Reuters that AUSSOM is a key pillar of the Somali state, warning that the country would face a real risk of fragmentation and disintegration without it. Regional security analyst Samira Gaid told Reuters that shutting down UNSOS could spell the end for AUSSOM itself, leaving the African Union with a choice between finding alternative logistics arrangements or drawing down and exiting.

The funding pressure is not new. A May report by the UN secretary-general found that UNSOS was already managing a shortfall of about $130 million, forcing cuts to aviation, demining programs, infrastructure repairs, and other operational spending, according to somaliatoday.com. The secretary-general proposed a budget of about $551 million for UNSOS for the 2026/27 financial year, down from the $588 million approved the previous year. Last year, Washington blocked a plan that would have shifted the AUSSOM mission's $190 million annual budget to a model in which UN funds covered three-quarters of the cost.

What comes next

The extra year removes the immediate prospect of UN logistical support vanishing at the end of 2026, but it does not guarantee that assistance continues at existing levels during the drawdown. Five diplomatic sources told Reuters that drawdown processes and timelines are expected to be discussed during UN Security Council deliberations in December.

Somalia's defense ministry, UNSOS, and the African Union Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to Reuters. Somalia has endured chaos and internal conflict since the fall of autocratic ruler Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, and militants have strengthened their grip on the countryside over the past two decades.

The standoff adds to a difficult season for United Nations missions, which are facing funding and political pressure on several fronts. A UN fact-finding mission in Venezuela reported this week that hundreds of political detainees have been freed there since January, but that the structures responsible for the detentions remain intact.