Statement by Deputy Permanent Representative Anna Evstigneeva at UNSC briefing on the situation in Somalia
Mme.President,
We thank Special Representative of the Secretary-General James Swan, as well as Special Representative of the African Union Francisco Madeira for their meaningful briefings. We welcome Permanent Representative of Somalia Ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman to this meeting.
We studied carefully the recent report of the Secretary-General.
We congratulate our Somalian colleagues on a successful completion of parliamentary and presidential elections and today’s official entry into office of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. We welcome the contribution of AMISOM, ATMIS and personally SRSG Swan to this achievement. We hope that Somalian authorities will soon be able to form new federal government and focus on state-building tasks and urgent problems, including countering terrorism and overcoming the consequences of an extraordinary drought.
We call on Somalian colleagues to pay more attention to security issues. We are seriously concerned over the intensification of the activity of Al-Shabaab against the backdrop of elections – not only at the periphery, but also in the capital of the country. The fact that its fighters penetrated the fortified area of Mogadishu international airport in March and attacked a base of the Burundian contingent of ATMIS in El-Baraf at the beginning of May proves that Al-Shabaab significantly enhanced its capacity.
Mme.President,
We do hope that the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia that received unanimous support of the Security Council in March will fulfil all its mandated tasks successfully, which will ultimately let Mogadishu assume full responsibility for security of Somalia. We believe that results of ATMIS engagement will largely depend on whether African peacekeepers receive stable financing. We remain convinced that transfer of responsibility to the Somalian military must proceed in a step-by-step manner, depending on the real situation on the ground. Since terrorist threat is still there, it would be premature to speak of Mission’s drawdown in current conditions.
We call on the UN and international and regional partners to set forth assistance for Somalia given full respect for its sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence without any external interference. We believe a quality strategic review of the special political mission under the lead of SRSG Swan would add to effectiveness of international assistance to Somalia. We stand ready to provide all required support for this sort of work.
Thank you.
