Security Council votes to expand mandate of monitoring group for Somali sanctions
Listen Geneva (Alshahid) – The Security Council today agreed to extend the United Nations panel of experts monitoring compliance with sanctions related to the conflict in Somalia for another year and to expand its mandate to try to maintain the arms embargo imposed in the region. Council members voted unanimously to adopt a resolution re-establishing [...]
COUPS: AU’S NEW HEADACHE
Listen Focus should be on good governance. The latest headache for the African Union (AU) is no longer inter-state wars nor civil uprisings, but an upsurge in unconstitutional changes of government. During the recently concluded AU Summit in Addis Ababa, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon decried the resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government in [...]
U.N Security Council extends Mandate of AU mission in Somalia
Listen United Nation (Alshahid) – The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to extend for one year the mandate of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Somalia, or AMISOM. The 15-member Council also authorized AMISOM to increase its force level up to 8,000 troops, and “to take all necessary measures to carry out [...]
Official: ‘European Union will not block rebel-held Somali ports’
Listen Madrid (Alshahid) – The European Union (EU) will not organize an operation to block rebel-held ports in Somalia, an EU official said in Brussels on Tuesday. During a meeting of the EU Political and Security Committee (PSC), Spain, which takes over the rotating presidency of the European Council, proposed that warships of the Atalante [...]
AU renews Somali peace force mandate.
Listen Addis Ababa (Alshahid) – The African Union on Friday extended the mandate of its Somalia peacekeeping mission by six months and called for more support for the country’s embattled transitional government. “During our discussions, there was unanimous support for the renewal of the African force in Somalia,” the AU’s Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane [...]
UN Security Council to extend mandate for African union troops in Somalia.
Listen United Nations (Alshahid) – The Security Council is scheduled to vote a draft resolution to renew the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia, diplomats said. The mandate of the African union peacekeepers expires on Jan. 31 this year. Zhang Yesui, the Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations who holds the rotating [...]
UN Security Council to meet on regional hot-spots.
Listen United Nations ( Alshahid) – The UN Security Council is scheduled to discuss the issues of regional hot-spots, such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Nepal, Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan and the Middle East, the president of the Council said here on Tuesday. Zhang Yesui, the Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations who holds the rotating Council [...]
The Kool-Aid Syndrome and Somalia’s Fading Hope
Listen Approximately nine months ago the UN-sponsored peace conference in Djibouti produced the current president of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. President Ahmed’s internationally supported unity government continues to be mired down in internal conflict; a conflict rooted in the 4.5 clan system formula. It is a system that remains the [...]
Uganda wants Somalia mandate to be reviewed
Listen Kampala (Alshahid)—Ugandan Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga has said the mandate of the peacekeeping force in Somalia needs to be reviewed, new vision reported. Briefing Parliament yesterday, the minister said the African Union (AU) force, composed mostly of Ugandan soldiers, should be allowed to attack. “As per now, the mandate is very restrictive. It is [...]
3 years on, Somalia’s president ‘full of hope’
Listen NEW YORK—What a difference three years makes. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was the head of the Islamic Courts Union in the fall of 2006 when the Star interviewed him inside a heavily guarded Mogadishu villa. The soft-spoken teacher turned politician had done what no other leader could —bring order to the anarchic city. A [...]