About United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS):

The United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS), formerly known as the United Nations Support Office for AMISOM (UNSOA), was established in 2009 by Security Council Resolution 1863, to provide logistics support to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The current mandate of UNSOS is provided in the UN Security Council Resolution 2568 of 12 March 2021.

UNSOA operations represented a significant departure for the UN which, until then, typically supported traditional peacekeeping in relatively stable environments. It is the first time the UN decided to support a non-UN mission – AMISOM. Over the years, the Security Council gradually increased UNSOA’s support package to keep pace with AMISOM combat operations as well as the increasing number of AMISOM personnel in Somalia, from the original authorized troop strength of 8,000 in 2009 to a high of 22,126 uniformed personnel and 70 civilian personnel in 2013. However, in 2017, the Security Council commenced a gradual drawdown of AMISOM uniformed personnel to facilitate transition and handover of security responsibilities to the Somalia Security Forces.

To increase the capacity of the Somalia Security Forces, the Security Council had, in 2013, also mandated limited non-lethal support to Somali National Army personnel engaged in joint operations with AMISOM. In the same year, the Security Council also instructed UNSOA to provide administrative and logistical support to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM). To reflect the mission’s increased number of clients in Somalia, the Security Council renamed UNSOA to the United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS) in 2015, and elevated the head of UNSOS to the level of Assistant Secretary-General (ASG).

While the majority of UNSOS personnel are located across the six Sector Headquarters in Somalia, UNSOS relies on a back office in Nairobi and a logistics base in Mombasa, Kenya.