Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Somalia: Security Council maintains exemption of aid delivery from embargo monitoring

The Security Council today maintained the exemption of activities related to the delivery of humanitarian aid to Somalia from restrictions imposed under the Council’s existing arms embargo relating to the Horn of Africa.

“The Security Council noted that the measures in paragraph 5 of resolution 1916 remain necessary to address the situation in Somalia, which continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security,” the Council said in a press statement.

In its resolution 1916, adopted on 19 March, the Council expanded the United Nations panel of experts monitoring compliance with sanctions related to the conflict in Somalia for another year, and expanded its mandate to include Eritrea’s activities in Somalia.

The panel, which has monitored compliance with embargoes on the delivery of weapons and military equipment, is now also tasked with probing activities – financial, maritime or any other field – which generate revenue used to violate the embargoes.

It is also now required to investigate “any means of transport, routes, seaports, airports and other facilities” used to break the embargoes, and to also identify ways in which the capacities of the region’s States can be strengthened to better implement the arms embargo.

The resolution eased some restrictions to enable the delivery of supplies and technical assistance by international, regional and sub-regional organisations, and to ensure the flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia was requested to report every 120 days on the implementation of this provision.

Somalia, which has been torn apart by decades of conflict and factional strife, faces a dire humanitarian crisis in which 3.2 million people, more than 40 per cent of the population, is in need of aid.

Source: UN News Center

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