The United Nations political mission in Somalia ended on Saturday (October 30, 2026) after a two-year transition, closing a chapter of more than three decades of UN peacebuilding operations in the east African nation.
He later revised the request, proposing a two-year transition period. In May 2024, Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud asked the UN to end the mission ahead of the expiry of its mandate in October that year.
“Today is not an end to the partnership between the United Nations and Somalia-rather, it marks the conclusion of one chapter and the beginning of another,” said Raisedon Zenenga, UNTMIS officer-in-charge and the UN secretary-general’s deputy special representative for Somalia in a statement.
The transition comes as Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab, which has fought the Somali government for two decades, continues to control large swathes of central Somalia despite a major international military campaign against it.
