Somalia president hails lifting of arms embargo as authorities vows to wipe out al-Shabab militants
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud welcomed Saturday the U.N. Security Council vote to elevate an arms embargo imposed on the Horn of Africa nation greater than 30 years in the past.
The 15-member council unanimously voted Friday night time in favor of the British-drafted decision to elevate the weapons ban. However, France was the one member to abstain when voting on one other decision to reimpose an arms embargo on al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants, saying the decision lacked references to the territorial disputes between Djibouti and Eritrea.
In a press release despatched to the Associated Press, Information Minister Daud Aweys stated the embargo elevate will assist modernize the nation’s armed forces. “Somalia has been grappling with significant security challenges, including the presence of extremist groups such as al-Shabab. The Somali government needs access to modern arms and equipment to effectively combat these threats and maintain security within its borders,” the assertion learn.
The Somali president, in a televised assertion quickly after the adoption of the decision, stated the embargo elevate “means that we are now free to purchase any weapons needed,” including that “friendly nations and allies” can now “provide us with the necessary weapons without any limitations or restrictions.”
Somalia was positioned below the embargo in 1992 to cease the sale of weapons to warlords who toppled former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The ouster led to a long time of civil battle and instability within the nation because the warlords fought in opposition to one another.
Last month, Mohamud pledged to wipe out the Islamist group, al-Shabaab, by Dec. 2024. The militant group has misplaced swaths of territory for the reason that authorities backed by native militias, African Union troops and Western powers, launched an in depth offensive in opposition to it in May.
Somalia has been tormented by years of battle and has for many years closely relied on the assist of African Union forces, in addition to Western powers such because the United States and Turkey, to keep up safety and counter the menace posed by Islamist militant teams working inside the nation.
