Somali's security state 'worse'
2008-05-23 09:21
New York - Despite a United Nations arms embargo, arms shipments to Somali militants have not stopped and Somalia's security situation is getting worse, South Africa's UN envoy has told the Security Council.
South African Ambassador to the UN Dumisani Kumalo, chairperson of the Security Council's Somalia sanctions committee, also reported to the 15-nation body that corruption in the lawless Horn of Africa country was rampant.
Kumalo said the committee had received worrying reports that "elements" of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, and Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) were involved in arms trafficking activities, which had the potential to undermine the peace process.
Some Ethiopians were also creating problems, he said.
"Eighty percent of ammunition available at the Somali arms markets was supplied by TFG and Ethiopian troops," Kumalo said in the written text of his remarks to the Security Council.
Violation of the arms embargo
He said his committee viewed the "continued presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali territory as a violation of the arms embargo" on Somalia, where warlords, Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed Somali government forces clashed almost daily.
The monitoring committee received details of some 25 military flights by Ethiopia into Somalia and knew that Ethiopian troops had brought military equipment into the country to arm "friendly clans", Kumalo said.
Arms and military hardware were mainly transported to Somalia by boat and airplane, but traffickers also used horses and donkeys, making shipments difficult to track, he said.
Kumalo said boats often came from Yemen "with goods for general trade and with weapons, (and) ... arms shipments were reaching Somalia at points along the entire coast".
Kumalo told the council the security situation in the northeastern region of Puntland was worsening and the conflict there expanding. He also said Somalia's "business community was profiting as well from the general situation of lawlessness".
Piracy, arms-trafficking
He said: "Somalia is affected by a war economy, with great profits made by military commanders, who therefore have little incentive to change the status quo."
The committee was also probing possible links between piracy and arms trafficking, as well as allegations that Somali port officials were actively supporting piracy, he said.
Kumalo said the Somalia sanctions committee backed the idea of independent investigations of Somalia's TFG, the Ethiopian government and AMISOM.
He said "only some elements in AMISOM and TFG" appeared to be responsible for such illegal activities, not the institutions themselves.
The committee was also exploring measures to strengthen the arms embargo.
Earlier this month, the Security Council passed a resolution opening the door to a stronger UN presence in Somalia and the possible deployment of UN peacekeepers there.