UN Security Council to vote today on lifting arms embargo on Somalia

Over three decades after an arms embargo was imposed on Somalia, the United Nations Security Council will vote on Friday to remove the final restrictions on weapons delivered to the country’s government and security forces.

The embargo was put on Somalia by the UNSC in 1992 to cut the flow of weapons to feuding warlords, who had ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the Horn of Africa country in civil war.

A report by Reuters quoted diplomats saying the 15-member body is due to adopt two British-drafted resolutions on Friday – one to remove the full arms embargo on Somalia and another to reimpose an arms embargo on Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab terrorists.

One of the draft resolutions spells out that “for the avoidance of doubt, that there is no arms embargo on the Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia.”

The UNSC also expressed concern about the number of safe ammunition storage facilities in Somalia, and encourages the construction, refurbishment and use of safe ammunition depots across Somalia. It has been urging other countries to help.

Since 2006, Al Shabaab has been waging a brutal insurgency against the Somali government and has been trying to establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

Somalia’s government had long asked for the arms embargo to be removed so it could strengthen its forces to take on the terrorists. The UNSC began to partially start lifting measures Somalia’s security forces in 2013.

Last week, president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said Somalia has one year to expel al Shabaab, with the deadline for remaining African Union peacekeepers to leave looming next December.

With inputs from Reuters