UN Security Council agree to partially lift arms embargo on Somalia to fight Islamist rebels 0703131

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Defence News - Somalia
 
 
Thursday, March 7, 2013, 09:12 AM
 
UN Security Council agree to partially lift arms embargo on Somalia to fight al-Shabab group.
The UN Security Council has agreed to partially lift a decades-old arms embargo on Somalia for one year, allowing the government in Mogadishu to buy light weapons to strengthen its security forces to fight the armed al-Shabab group. The 15-member council on Wednesday, March 6, 2013, unanimously adopted a British-drafted resolution that also renewed a 17,600-strong African Union peacekeeping force for a year and reconfigured the UN mission in the Horn of Africa country.
     
The UN Security Council has agreed to partially lift a decades-old arms embargo on Somalia for one year, allowing the government in Mogadishu to buy light weapons to strengthen its security forces to fight the armed al-Shabab group. The 15-member council on Wednesday, March 6, 2013, unanimously adopted a British-drafted resolution that also renewed a 17,600-strong African Union peacekeeping force for a year and reconfigured the UN mission in the Horn of Africa country.
Somali government soldiers listen to a trainer from the European Union (EU) during a military training in Bihanga 450 km (279.6 miles) southwest of Uganda`s capital Kampala
     

Somalia's government had asked for the arms embargo to be removed and the US supported that, but other Security Council members were wary about completely lifting the embargo on a country that is already awash with weapons, diplomats said.

The embargo was imposed on Somalia in 1992 to cut the flow of weapons to feuding warlords, who a year earlier had ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the country into civil war.

Somalia held its first vote last year to elect a president and prime minister since 1991.

The UN resolution would allow sales of such weapons as automatic assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, but leaves in place a ban on surface-to-air missiles, large-calibre guns, howitzers, cannons and mortars as well as anti-tank guided weapons, mines and night vision weapon sights.

It also requires that the Somalia government or the country delivering assistance notify the Security Council "at least five days in advance of any deliveries of weapons and military equipment ... providing details of such deliveries and assistance and the specific place of delivery in Somalia".