The African Union backed Somalia’s request to slow the withdrawal of its troops fighting Islamist militants and called for a new international force to replace the AU peacekeeping mission. Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group, has been waging a deadly insurgency against the fragile central government in Mogadishu for more than 17 years. UN resolutions called for forces in the African Union peacekeeping mission, known as ATMIS, to be reduced to zero by December 31 with security handed over to the Somali army and police. The third and penultimate phase was to see the departure of 4,000 soldi…