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Consultative Meeting of African Union Member States
on Support to Somalia Transitional Federal Government
Nairobi, Kenya, 6th June 2009
Communiqué
In accordance with the Communiqués of the IGAD extra ordinary Council of Ministers meeting of 20 May 2009 and the African Union Peace and Security Council meeting of 22 May 2009 calling for a more concerted and coordinated efforts by the IGAD, AU and UN in addressing the Somalia crisis and, United Nations Security Council resolution 1872 (2009), a meeting of AU Member States that have pledged training and service support to the Somalia Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was convened by the three institutions on Saturday, 6th June 2009 at Nairobi, Kenya.
The meeting was attended by Ambassadors/Representatives of the following AU Member States: Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Somalia, also participated in the meeting.
The meeting received briefs on the political, security and socio-economic situation in Somalia from the Somalia Minister for Defence, the Special Representative of the AU Commission Chairperson for Somalia and the IGAD Facilitator for the Somalia Peace and Reconciliation Process.
The meeting highlighted the need for coordination of all ongoing and future training support and other services pledged by AU Member States to the TFG in order to avoid duplication, wastage of the scarce resources available to maximize such support and to urgently re-establish Somalia’s Security Sector Institutions. The meeting also discussed, and agreed upon, urgent areas for capacity building in support of revitalising Somali state institutions in the security, financial integrity, governance and revenue generation sectors notably the key ministries of Finance and Economic Planning, Defence, Interior, National Security and the Parliament, Judiciary, Prime Minister’s Office and the Presidency.
Accordingly, the meeting encouraged AU Member States and relevant organizations to reenergize their resolve to support the TFG by initiating or reactivating their bi-lateral co-operations with the TFG. The meeting also called upon bilateral and multilateral institutions and governmental institutions with the requisite expertise and comparative advantages in the areas identified above, to urgently support the TFG with such expertise by either seconding such expertise to the TFG or allowing Somalia to benefit from on-the-job training in their organizations or countries respectively. The meeting called for the speedy disbursement of funds and delivery of other assistance pledged for Somalia Security Sector Institutions at the Brussels conference in April 2009.
The meeting further welcomed the initiative of AMISOM, IGAD and UNPOS in convening this meeting and stressed its support and determination to ensure the achievement of the objectives of the meeting. In this regard, the meeting proposed that a follow up meeting at the technical and ambassadorial levels be convened on 13 and 14 July 2009 respectively to review the status of implementation of the decisions of this meeting.
Nairobi, Kenya, 6th June 2009