The US circulated a draft resolution calling for a UN peacekeeping force to be deployed in Somalia to replace a small African Union force, but leaving the Security Council to make a final decision by June 1.
The draft resolution would renew the mandate of the African Union force, known as AMISOM, for six months and urge African nations to beef up its troop strength from the current 2,600 to the 8,000 originally authorized.
It expresses the council’s “intent to establish a UN Peacekeeping Operation in Somalia as a follow-on force to AMISOM, subject to a further decision of the Security Council by June 1, 2009.”
The resolution is drafted under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which is militarily enforceable, and declares that “the situation in Somalia constitutes a threat to international peace and security in the region.”
The African Union and the US have been pushing for months for a UN peacekeeping force, but finding troops for a multinational force initially envisioned as a precursor to a UN operation has been impossible.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last month he had asked at least 50 nations and three international organizations to support the council’s request for a multinational force to stabilize Somalia and the replies were “very lukewarm or negative.”
The Horn of Africa nation is currently at a dangerous crossroads. The president resigned late last month, saying he has lost most of the country to Islamic insurgents, and the Ethiopian troops who have been protecting the fragile, UN-backed government have begun pulling out, leaving a dangerous power vacuum. Islamic groups are starting to fight among themselves for power.
Somalia has been beset by 18 years of anarchy, violence and an Islamic insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing for their lives. Foreigners, journalists and humanitarian workers are frequently abducted for ransoms, and the US fears the country could become a haven for al-Qaeda.
The US draft resolution asks Ban to submit a report by April 15 on political and security developments in Somalia and progress toward full deployment of the African Union force “with a view to transition” to a UN peacekeeping force.
In the report, it says Ban should also develop the mandate for a UN force including facilitating delivery of humanitarian aid, monitoring a cease-fire and assisting “in supporting the effective re-establishment and training of inclusive Somali security forces, including military, police and judiciary.”
The draft envisions that ultimately Somali security forces “would assume full responsibility for providing security in Somalia.”
Under its provisions, the secretary-general would establish a trust fund to provide financial support for the African Union force until a UN force is deployed and to assist in restarting the training of a Somali security force.
Last year, Somalia’s weak transitional government agreed to share power with a faction of the country’s opposition, the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, a relatively moderate group that split from the al-Shabab extremist group which has been at the center of the insurgency.
The agreement has not changed the political chaos in Somalia because al-Shabab, which the US considers a terrorist organization, did not participate in the UN-brokered talks.
The US draft resolution stresses the need to create the conditions for the UN special representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, “to continue to make progress on the political process.”
It demands “that all states in the region refrain from any action that might contribute to instability in Somalia or the Horn of Africa region.”
It also reiterates the Security Council’s “intention to take measures against those who seek to prevent or block a peaceful political process, or those who threaten participants in the political process by force, or those who undermine stability in Somalia or the region.”
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS