Somalia asks UN to delay peacekeeper drawdown after 'significant setbacks'

FILE PHOTO: A Somali police officer looks from the broken windows of the Pearl Beach Restaurant following an attack by Al Shabaab militants at the Liido beach in Mogadishu, Somalia June 10, 2023. REUTERS/Feisal Omar/File Photo

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Somalia has asked the United Nations to pause a planned drawdown of 3,000 African Union peacekeepers for three months to allow its security forces time to regroup after a militant attack forced them to withdraw from several recently captured towns.

The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), which is mandated by the U.N. Security Council, took over from another AU mission in April last year.