Security Council to debate Somalia sanctions as Mogadishu fights to gain reform control
Somalia is pushing for control of its future security apparatus, even as the UN Security Council prepares to vote on a draft resolution that could extend a partial arms embargo for a year.
On Monday, the Council is expected to vote on a resolution on Somalia sanctions, which have been in place for nearly 30 years, although they have been amended over the years by subsequent resolutions.
That resolution may mean that the Council will extend further controls on Somalia’s arms purchases ostensibly to control weapons smuggling and regulate exemptions.
The draft authored by the UK has promised to support Somalia’s rebuilding project, including equipping security forces and curtailing sources of funds and weapons for militant group Al-Shabaab.
It expands protection to maritime patrols, tighter controls on financial transactions, illicit practices like charcoal selling and material used to make home-made bombs.
Yet the Council has received direct commentary from Mogadishu, which has rejected any forms of controls that will not place Somalia in charge of its security future.
This is also tightly related with the future of the African Union Mission in Somalia or Amisom, whose mandate the Council is also expected to decide whether to extend or adopt a new format for it.
Somalia last month opposed the decision by the African Union Peace and Security Council to endorse a hybrid format to replace a purely combat Amisom. As it is, the new format will be adopted if the UN Security Council also endorses it later this month.
Last week, during a tour of the AU Peace and Security Council in Mogadishu, Somalia told the 15-member AU body that it wanted fewer foreign forces but more support to elevate their nascent security teams to guard the country as well as other government departments to provide services to the people.
“What will not be accepted by the Somali nation is foot-dragging, misrepresentation and delays that hinder the implementation of a successful security transfer from an AU mission to Somali security forces,” the Somalia said, according to a statement shared with the media.
“You see here, the Hybrid option you chose brings more troops while the STP (Somali Transition Plan) we (The Somali government) want reduces the current force and this is the biggest difference we have,” added Mohamed Abdirizak, Somalia’s minister for foreign affairs and international cooperation.
“We want less force, NOT more.”
AU’s idea of a hybrid mission, which was also endorsed by the five troop-contributing countries, sees an expanded Amisom, paid and sustained by the UN and which includes military and non-military components, including humanitarian and technical experts.
But Somalia says this could hinder the growth of its own local forces, making it difficult to develop areas liberated from Al-Shabaab as well as making the country dependent on foreign security support.
In Somalia’s Transition Plan (STP), Mogadishu is seeking to have the arms embargo lifted so that it can purchase and equip its troops with modern weapons. Under the partial embargo in place, Somalia can purchase certain weapons only if the sanctions committee of the UN Security Council approves the request.
Proponents of the extended partial embargo argue Somalia has yet to put in place measures that will prevent its acquired weapons from ending up in Shabaab hands. In fact, the UN Security Council, as part of the vote on Monday, will also decide how to improve management of a weapons inventory, besides boosting the forces’ readiness to deal with Al-Shabaab.
The Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) has indicated it wants the Transition Plan because it gives clarity on how the country can formally part ways with Amisom after a successive changeover by 2023, the time it thinks it will be fully ready to handle its own security needs.
The AU-PSC had endorsed the AU-UN hybrid mission deployed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter that is said to ensure predictable and sustainable multi-year financing for the future mission, through UN-assessed contributions as stated in the approved document.
Nevertheless, the FGS expressed its preference on a quick exit of the more than 20,000 AU peacekeepers that have helped the government to hold its grip on important parts of the country and degrade the extremist group.
Amisom troops come from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia and Djibouti, and all these countries who have endorsed the hybrid format.
Similar views came from other Somali sides, including the influential Coalition of (the opposition) Presidential Candidates –CPC, a grouping of more than a dozen top politicians led by former president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and includes another former president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, and ex-prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire.
“The AU-UN mission in Somalia deployed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter is short-sighted, ill-advised, and alarming. It openly contradicts the very purpose of the AU and UN in Somalia,” the CPC statement underlined.
“It became clear to many Somalis that the proposed plan takes agency away from the Somali state after 14 years of failure by the Amisom (to achieve) its stated mission, lacks local input and did not consider Somalia’s legitimate rights to sovereignty and territorial integrity.” BY DAILY NATION

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