UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to condemn the recent upsurge in fighting in Somalia and called for an end to actions that undermine the country’s Western-backed government.

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The resolution adopted by the 15-member council emphasized that Somalia’s long-term security depends on the transitional government’s «effective development» of a National Security Force and Somali Police Force.
It urged member states and regional and international organizations to fund these forces and provide trainingand equipment.

The Security Council authorized U.N. member states to maintain the African Unionpeacekeeping mission in the capital, Mogadishu, where it is protecting the airport, seaport and other strategic areas, until Jan. 31.
The AU force has 4,350 troops and will increase to 5,100 soldiers with new funding from a conference in Brussels last month _ still far short of the authorized strength of 8,000 soldiers.
The resolution recognized that instability in Somalia was contributing to piracy and armed robbery at sea and stressed «the need for a comprehensive response by the international community to tackle piracy and its underlying causes.
The council reiterated its intention to establish a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia but said a decision would take into account conditions set out by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In the meantime, it authorized the U.N. to continue providing logistical support to the AU force.
Ban said last month that deploying a U.N. force will require significant progress in promoting political reconciliation and restoring peace in Somalia after 18 years of anarchy, and in building up Somalia’s own security institutions, police and military forces.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since the ouster of a longtime dictator in 1991 and is riven by fighting among clan warlords and an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing for their lives. Nearly half its population of 7 million is dependent on aid, and piracy has become rampant.

Somalia’s President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed urged the international community on Monday to help drive out hundreds of foreigners believed to be fighting alongside radical insurgents.
More than 150 people have been killed and hundreds injured in an upsurge in fighting in the past two weeks. The U.N. said the violence has prompted 57,000 Somalis to flee Mogadishu.

Somalia’s two main Islamist insurgent groups, the Islamic Party and al-Shabab, formed an alliance a month ago to overthrow Ahmed’s government. They consider him a traitor for signing a peace deal that paved the way for him to become president earlier this year.

The United States worries that Somalia could be a terrorist breeding ground, particularly since Osama bin Laden declared his support for the Islamists. The U.S. accuses al-Shabab of harboring the al-Qaida-linked terrorists who allegedly blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Source: AP, May 26, 2009

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