From AU to UN, East Africa holds the line as peace missions shrink

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni inspects a guard of honour during the flagging-off of Uganda’s first AU peacekeeping contingent to Somalia on March 1, 2007. East Africa remains the backbone of global peacekeeping despite shrinking troop numbers and funding.

Despite the decline in numbers and funding for global peace operations, Eastern African countries remain pivotal to multilateral missions, particularly in Somalia, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic (CAR).

This makes the region one of the few enduring pillars of international peacekeeping.

A new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reveals a significant global decrease in troop deployments and funding amid mounting geopolitical tensions that are challenging the effectiveness of multilateral peace operations. Notably, it is mainly sub-Saharan African nations that are maintaining these numbers.

The region accounts for half of the world’s top 10 troop-contributing countries, with Uganda topping the 2025 global rankings ahead of Asian heavyweights Nepal, Bangladesh, and India. Rwanda, Ethiopia and Burundi follow closely behind, while Kenya ranks ninth, ahead of Indonesia, underscoring East Africa’s outsized role in international peace operations, even as global support wanes.

The report, titled ‘Developments and Trends in Multilateral Peace Operations, 2025’, highlights Eastern Africa’s growing influence in international peace operations at a time when global missions are shrinking and financial support is under increasing strain.

The SIPRI data shows that in 2025, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burundi and Kenya, collectively, deployed 17,038 military personnel in peace missions around the world, compared with 16,948 from the Asian quintet of Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Indonesia.

Uganda has been at the heart of regional peace operations in Somalia since 2007, sustaining the AU’s largest and longest-serving military deployment with 4,500 troops on the ground.

By the mid-2010s, the number of uniformed personnel had grown to around 6,200–6,225.

Beyond its AU role, Kampala also deploys the elite United Nations Guard Unit in Mogadishu, a specialised force responsible for protecting UN personnel, compounds, and critical facilities.

The Guard Unit operates under a separate UN mandate and is distinct from the African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (Aussom) and its predecessors, the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (Atmis) from April 2022 to December 2024 and the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) from 2007 to March 31, 2022.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has repeatedly signalled Uganda’s readiness to expand its deployments, but only if certain conditions are met, including assured financing, force multipliers, and compensation for lost contingent-owned equipment.

Elsewhere in Africa’s peacekeeping landscape, Rwanda deployed 3,814 military personnel to UN missions in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. This is down from the 4,779 personnel, including troops and military experts, that Kigali deployed in 2024, according to the UN.

Ethiopia, Burundi and Kenya remain major contributors to Aussom, with troop deployments of 3,446, 2,963 and 2,158 respectively. According to SIPRI data, this represents a modest decline compared to 2024. However, the broader picture is stark because global peace operations are shrinking.

By the end of 2025, the total number of international personnel deployed had fallen to 78,633 — the lowest level in 25 years and 49 percent below 2016 levels. Last year alone saw a 17 percent drop, the steepest annual decline on record.

SIPRI attributes the contraction to shifting political priorities among major donors and persistent funding gaps that are squeezing UN missions.

In July last year, UN peacekeeping faced a $2 billion shortfall, more than a third of its $5.6 billion budget, forcing multiple missions to cut personnel as donor contributions lagged. In total, 58 multilateral peace operations were active across 34 countries in 2025, three fewer than the previous year.

Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe both hosted 18 missions, the Middle East and North Africa 14, the Americas five, while Asia and Oceania had three. However, SIPRI says nearly three-quarters of personnel were deployed with just five missions, four of them in sub-Saharan Africa: CAR, South Sudan, Somalia and DRC.

“If things continue in this way, we could see a dramatic weakening of multilateral conflict management and the near-complete sidelining of institutions such as the UN, due to a perfect storm of funding, political and geopolitical factors,” said Dr Jaïr van der Lijn, Director of the SIPRI Peace Operations and Conflict Management Programme.

The decline in peace support budgets could have dire consequences, van der Lijn warns: “The result is likely to be more conflicts, and these conflicts are likely to have even graver impacts on civilians as states abandon long-established norms.”

The number of personnel deployed increased in the Americas and Europe, but decreased in all other regions. Four peace operations closed in 2025: in the DRC, Haiti, Iraq, and the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

Although the UN remained the main organisation deploying multilateral peace operations, accounting for 18 operations and 67 percent of all deployed personnel, it registered a slightly smaller share than in 2024 when it accounted for 69 percent.

As in 2024, however, most peace operations were deployed by regional organisations and alliances, which accounted for 34 operations — three fewer than in 2024.

Four African regional organisations — the AU, Ecowas, Igad and SADC — conducted nine multilateral peace operations in 2025, one fewer than in 2024.

Collectively, these organisations deployed 13,414 personnel in 2025, which was a 29 percent decrease compared with the previous year.

This decline was primarily due to the closure of the SADC-backed mission in eastern Congo and the transition from Atmis to Aussom. While regional initiatives such as Aussom and the SADC Mission in DRC (SAMIDRC) may emerge as alternatives to UN-led missions, developments in 2025 underlined their limitations, SIPRI warns.

“Regional organisations lack key capabilities when it comes to successful, integrated peacebuilding, while they are also plagued by funding shortfalls and an inability to reach agreement like the UN,” said Dr Claudia Pfeifer Cruz, Senior Researcher in the SIPRI Peace Operations and Conflict Management Programme.

Cruz, who co-authored the report, added: “As UN-led conflict management recedes, it is leaving a growing gap that alternative models are unable to fill.”

She explained that the collapse of multilateral conflict management is not inevitable, as widespread support for UN peace operations in principle remains evident. However, member states will need to go beyond expressions of support and provide predictable funding, while creating enough political space to enable effective multilateral responses.

As Aussom, the world’s third-largest multilateral peace operation, struggled for funding in 2025, Uganda and Ethiopia, already accounting for two-thirds of the mission’s uniformed personnel, deployed additional troops on bilateral terms with Somalia to bolster combat operations against Al Shabaab.

The AU Somali mission, also manned by Kenyan, Djiboutian and Burundian troops, the latter holding fort for yet-to-deploy Egyptian forces, began operations in January 2025. Major donors, the US and the European Union, retreated, depriving it of crucial funding.

After protracted talks with the AU, the EU in April restored funding, announcing a €75 million ($87 million) package for the Aussom military component, to cater for troop allowances, non-lethal equipment and related services, against a budget of $166.5 million for 2026 alone.

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