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UN eases Somali arms embargo

March 6, 2013

The UN Security Council has eased the arms embargo on Somalia, agreeing to a one year partial lift in a bid to help the new government combat Islamist forces. The embargo is the oldest international weapons blockade.

https://p.dw.com/p/17sJX
African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) combat engineers repair and grade a stretch of road leading to the town of Afgooye in Somalia's Lower Shabelle region, along the main route linking the fertile, agricultural region with the capital Mogadishu in this picture provided by African Union-United Nations Information Support Team taken January 24, 2013 and received by Reuters January 26, 2013. After years under the control of the Al-Qaeda linked group Al Shabaab, stretches of the economically important thoroughfare were virtually in-passable. Now, 7 months after the Shabaab were forced to flee following "Operation Free Shabelle", in which the Somali National Army, supported by AMISOM forces, liberated the Afgooye Corridor, the engineers have begun repairing the 4.5km (2.8 miles) stretch of road to increase ease and flow of traffic carrying people and produce to and from Mogadishu. REUTERS/AU-UN IST PHOTO/Stuart Price/Handout (SOMALIA - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS) ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS PICTURE IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

The 15-member UN Security Council (UNSC) unanimously passed a resolution to allow light weapons to be sold to the Somali armed forces. The partial lift is meant to help Somalia's transitional government to strengthen its security forces to combat al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters.

The resolution allows for a one year suspension of the embargo when small arms will be allowed. However, the resolution leaves in place a ban on surface-to-air missiles, larger-caliber guns, howitzers, cannons and mortars, anti-tank guided weapons, mines, night vision weapon sights, and related ammunition.

Under the new resolution, the Somali government must give at least five days notice of weapons deliveries and purchases, which UN experts will monitor.

"The council has struck the right balance. It sends a positive signal to President Hassan Sheikh but it continues to give the council oversight of weapons flows into Somalia," said Britain's UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, whose country drafted the resolution.

US ambassador Susan Rice called the resolution "a clear signal of support" to the Somali president. "We will continue to work to support the government of Somalia as they endeavor to turn the page on two decades of civil war," Rice said in a statement.

Ever since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud took office in September, he has campaigned for an end to the embargo, with his efforts backed by the United States.

The embargo dates back to 1992, a year after the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The resolution also gave a new one year mandate to the 17,000 strong African Union force in Somalia, AMISOM. The UNSC is expected to move toward making the force a formal UN peacekeeping mission as government control increases.

hc/rc (Reuters, AFP)