France and Somalia

Bilateral relations and multilateral relations (EU, UN)

Bilateral relations remain limited. Our trade stood at some €48 million in 2017 (with a little more than 38€ in French exports, primarily agrifood products, and a little less than €10 million of imports). No foreign direct investment flow has been recorded since 2009. France is Somalia’s third-largest bilateral Paris Club creditor, behind the United States and Italy. French official development assistance stood at €0.2 million in 2016, making France Somalia’s 23rd-largest bilateral donor. No Agence Française de Développement (AFD, French Development Agency) activities are envisaged in Somalia in the short term, and no Treasury implements are now available to the country. In the humanitarian field, France provided aid of €4.8 million in 2017, while Somaliland is the primary destination of our bilateral assistance to Somalia.

France’s action and support in Somalia is mainly channelled through the United Nations and the European Union. Since 2007, the EU has spent more than €1.6 billion via the African Peace Facility (APF) to fund the African Union Military Observer Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). AMISOM has been present in the country since 2007 with UN Security Council authorization. Its aims include combating Al Shabab, and it currently has some 20,500 soldiers including contingents from Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda and Burundi. AMISOM also includes a police component, with 1,000 service members from Uganda, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Ghana and Zambia.

The European Union also allocates an average of €170 million each year to development projects in four main areas: governance, education, the social sector and economic development; In 2017, it stepped up its humanitarian assistance to populations affected by conflict and drought in Somalia, with DG ECHO granting a total of €119 million that year. France also contributes to EU actions supporting the stabilization of Somalia and the fight against maritime piracy in the Horn of Africa, through three missions: EUNAVFOR Atalanta (operation to combat piracy off the coast), EUTM Somalia (training of Somali armed forces), and EUCAP Somalia (maritime and judicial capacity building to combat piracy). France contributes financially, through its compulsory contributions, to the UN scheme financing a logistical support package for the African Union Military Observer Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), disbursed by the United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS) – US $3.2 billion since 2010 – as well as to a political mission on the ground (United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia, UNSOM).

^{Updated: 10 July 2018}