Top UN Envoy Calls On Somali Diaspora To Reject Violence

New York – Violence will not solve Somalia’s problems, the top United Nations envoy to the struggling country said today, urging the diaspora to continue supporting peace efforts in the face of rising efforts by opposition militants to topple the Horn of Africa country’s Government.

“Brutal force has repeatedly failed to lead to any lasting success or stability,” Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, wrote in a letter to the Somalia diaspora.

Since early May, when the Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam militant groups launched attacks against Government forces in the capital, over 200,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. Many of them had been uprooted by fighting last year and had only recently returned to Mogadishu.

“The suffering of the people has not stopped the fighters,” Mr. Ould-Abdallah said. “However, I must assure you that those who want to destroy the country further will not succeed.”

He appealed to all parties to prioritize Somalia’s future, with those outside the Djibouti peace process to join in to consolidate stability in the country.

Repeated attempts to overthrow the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) are a source of deep concern, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report made public yesterday.

The spike in attacks by insurgents comes “at a time when the Government is making concrete progress towards fulfilling its transitional agenda, which the population has increasingly welcomed,” Mr. Ban wrote in his latest report on the situation in Somalia.

“The attempts by elements opposed to peace and stability to seize power by force from the legally constituted and internationally recognized Government must not be allowed to succeed,” he said, adding that the authorities must be enabled to “exercise its authority countrywide for the sake of the Somali people.”

Insurgent groups, such as Al-Shabaab, have stepped up their strategy to intimidate the Somali people, including through methods such as “high gain” assassinations and arrests of clan elders, some of whom have been murdered. On 19 June, Omar Hashi Aden, the Minister of National Security, was killed in a large-scale suicide car bombing in Beletweyne in central Somalia.

Additionally, Somali militants raided two UN compounds on Monday, stealing equipment and vehicles and forcing the world body to close down one of its operations in the violence-wracked country.

In spite of the violence, the Secretary-General commended efforts by President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and the unity Government to engage with opposition groups not taking part in the Djibouti peace process.

“These are testing times, but there is the hope of a brighter future and we must all work together more than ever to make it a reality,” Mr. Ould-Abdallah wrote in today’s letter.

Source: Press Release: United Nations

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