Just one UN decision not enough to settle Somali problem

The African Union’s Commissioner for Peace and Security Ratmane Lamamra has submitted to the UN Security Council a proposal for setting up a sea and air blockade of Somalia to put an end to sea piracy and arms deliveries to the Al-Shabab Islamist movement.

Somali pirates. Photo: EPA

This is the way the Somali ambassador to Russia Mohamed Mohammud Handule commented on the proposal.

The suggestion has been made, with no decision from the Security Council as yet, but the Somali Foreign Ministry has already reacted to the move, Ambassador Mohamed Handule says. If the international community comes out for this kind of blockade, Somalia will be sealed off from the rest of the world. But the Somali Foreign Ministry points out in a statement that the Somali population should not suffer as a result, the diplomat says.

The world community can see what is perfectly obvious. Somali pirates seize merchant ships, and threaten navigation in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. The United Nations, the European Union and the African Union are certainly concerned a bout it. We therefore welcome the international community’s efforts to that end.

But one UN Security Council decision will never resolve Somalia’s two problems, namely piracy and Islamism. The two are interlinked, and should therefore be settled at a go. Pirates and terrorists should be hit both from inside and outside Somalia. I am certain, ambassador Mohamed Handule says, that the world community will never cope with either evil of the two without assistance from Somalis proper.

Besides, Somalia is a large country, and it is not at all easy to establish control over such a vast area. If the UN Security Council does make a decision in favour of a blockade, this will prove a real present to my country. It would be silly of Somalis to reject this kind of decision.

The Somali ambassador to Russia on a likely UN Security Council decision to impose a blockade on Somalia.

Source: Voice of Russia