Den Afikanske Union fik onsdag forlænget sit mandat af FNs sikkerhedsråd til at opretholde fredsbevarende styrker i Somalia. Samtidig bliver dele af våbenembargoen mod landet løftet.
NEW YORK, 6 March, 2013 (UN News Service): The UN Security Council Wednesday extended for another year the mandate of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Somalia, as it continues to consider a revised United Nations presence there, and partially lifted the 20-year-old arms embargo imposed on the country.
Created and operated by the AU in January 2007, AMISOM received a UN mandate from the Security Council the following month, and has been renewed ever since.
It is mandated to conduct peace support operations in Somalia, which has been affected by conflict for more than two decades but which has recently made some significant political gains.
Weapons embargo partially lifted
In Wednesday’s resolution, the Council also partially lifted the weapons ban for one year to boost the Government’s capacity to protect areas recovered from the militant group Al-Shabaab and defend against fresh attempts by such groups to destabilize the country.
It decided that the arms embargo, originally imposed in 1992, would not apply to arms or equipment sold or supplied solely for the development of the Government’s security forces, but it kept its restrictions in place on heavy weapons, such as surface-to-air missiles.
The 15-member body agreed with the Secretary-General that “the conditions in Somalia are not yet appropriate for the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping operation,” and requested that he keeps this under review, including through the setting of benchmarks for when it might be appropriate to deploy a UN peacekeeping operation.
