Entry
This chapter analyses the major developments during AMISOM’s first two years before the withdrawal of the Ethiopian troops from Mogadishu. The first section discusses the initial deployment challenges facing AMISOM and the problems presented by operating in Ethiopia’s shadow. The second section explains Burundi’s arrival as AMISOM’s second troop-contributing country, while the third analyses some of the ways in which AMISOM came to be seen by many local Somalis as a proxy force for nefarious foreign agendas. The fourth section then discusses the 2008 Djibouti peace process as the route by which Ethiopia managed to withdraw its forces. The fifth section discusses the opportunities and challenges presented by the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces in January 2009, while the final section examines what this meant for AMISOM being left alone to take on the leading role of protecting Somalia’s transitional government from al-Shabaab.