Afrique en ligne
Friday, August 12, 2011
He said 'the recent developments offer an extraordinary moment of opportunity for progress and great challenges. 'Now is the time for the international community to demonstrate its commitment and step forward and support the process robustly and immediately on all fronts,” Mahiga told the UN Security Council by video link.
He expressed his pleasure for being able to address the council 'at this historical juncture' from Mogadishu, the capital, for the first time, noting that, 'the Somali people simply cannot wait any longer to stabilise the country and ensure peace and unity.'
He cited the 'breath-taking speed' of last week’s withdrawal of Al-Shabaab Islamic insurgents from 95 per cent of Mogadishu under pressure from the 6,200-strong UN-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and July’s ratification by the transitional parliament of an accord reducing its controversial three-year extension of its mandate that was scheduled to end this month to just one year.
The envoy, however, called for greater funding and logistical assistance, including aviation and mine disposal equipment for AMISOM, which the African Union has proposed increasing to 20,000-strong, to ensure Transitional Federal Government (TFG) control of Mogadishu.
PANA learnt that the AU also planned to expand the mission to the south and to the borders of Kenya and Ethiopia and to the town of Kismayo, areas still controlled by Al-Shabaab and other militant groups.
Mahiga also said: 'The TFG and AMISOM both have limited resources to exploit the opportunity presented by the withdrawal of Al-Shabaab.'
He, however, added that, 'the security situation remains precarious and the insurgents are likely to resort to terrorist attacks and guerrilla tactics targeting the TFG and AMISOM forces and unfortunately, even IDPs and other civilians.'
At a later video news conference from Mogadishu, AMISOM Force Commander Major-General Nathan Mugisha said 12,000 to 15,000 troops were needed to secure Mogadishu 'both efficiently and effectively.
'But we do not have them, we do not have enough armoured cars, we do not have other capacities like air capacity and maritime capacity,” he said.
Mugisha also appealed to the international community 'to look into this, so that we efficiently control Mogadishu.'
On his part, Mahiga warned that, 'without immediate action by the TFG to put in place basic administrative structures in areas under its control, a real danger exists that the warlords and their militia groups will move forward to fill the vacuum created by Al-Shabaab’s departure.'
He also called on the international community to speed up the reinforcement of the Somali police force.
'It is thus mission-critical that we secure the logistical support, including a fast-tracked construction of permanent facilities to pave the way for the deployment of additional staff,” the UN envoy told reporters in New York, who monitored the videoa-link.
He further stressed the vital immediate requirement of an additional guard force under AMISOM to protect and facilitate UN movement in Mogadishu.
According to him, significant gaps still remained in the UN’s support package for AMISOM, saying that, 'there is need for adequate, predictable and sustainable funding.
'I appeal to the UN Security Council to consider expanding the support package for AMISOM to cover some of the critical categories of self-sustainment and to look at the issue of funding of contingent-owned equipment,” Mahiga added.
On the humanitarian crisis, he said that, '3.7 million people, nearly half of the Somali population, were now directly at risk of famine and that tens of thousands had already perished, with 13 children out of every 10,000 under the age of five dying every day from malnutrition and famine-related diseases.'
PANA reported that the UN had sought for US$1 billion in its Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) for Somalia at the beginning of the year but less than 50 per cent has so far been received.
Somalia has been riven by fighting for the past 20 years, in which it has not had a functioning central government.
Also, Somalia and its neighbours are now confronting a massive humanitarian crisis with hundreds of thousands internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees driven from their homes by the fighting and one of the worst droughts and famines in recent memory.