The UN, African Union and East Africa’s regional organization have warned opponents of Somalia’s move toward peace and a permanent government that they will be named and shamed and may face sanctions if they continue their obstruction, the UN envoy to the Horn of Africa nation said on Tuesday.
The UN Security Council announced in February that it would end the mandate for Somalia’s transitional government on Aug. 20.
It has called on all parties to implement a roadmap aimed at improving security, governance and reconciliation, and creating a constitution.
While Somalia has had transitional administrations since 2004, it has not had a functioning central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a longtime dictator and turned on each other, plunging the impoverished nation into anarchy.
UN special representative Augustine Mahiga told the Security Council that there have been “considerable advances” in preparing for the end of the long transition.
However, he said “the threat to the peace process from spoiler behavior is real” and should not be allowed to jeopardize implementation of the roadmap.
In his recent report to the Security Council, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the transitional federal parliament “dysfunctional” and said the continuing crisis and impasse was delaying passage of legislation and progress on key steps in moving to a post-transition government.
Mahiga told the council that the “spoilers ... feel that the end of the transition will jeopardize their privileged positions and standing in Somalia.”
“They are, hence, employing various methods to obstruct and reverse the gains made in the implementation of the roadmap,” he said.
Mahiga said that on May 1, the UN mission in Somalia, the African Union peacekeeping force and the seven-nation regional bloc known as IGAD “issued a warning to all potential spoilers that non-compliance with or active obstruction of the roadmap will be followed by the naming and shaming of individuals.”
He said this could subsequently lead to calls on IGAD and the Security Council to impose “specific measures and restrictions,” including travel bans and possible asset freezes.
Mahiga said Somalia was entering “the most critical stage” in ending the transition and urged the international community to provide “timely logistical and financial support to enable us to complete the implementation of the roadmap before August.”
He said there have been “significant steps in the constitution-making process” and a draft will be submitted to a new 825-member National Constituent Assembly, to be chosen by a group of 135 traditional elders from all over Somalia, for provisional adoption.
A referendum will then be held to approve the final constitution to establish a permanent government.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in