Thursday, March 06, 2014
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International called on the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday (March 4th) to restore the full arms embargo on Somalia and to put in place stronger monitoring regulations to contain violence and civilian deaths.
The UN Security Council voted in March 2013 to ease the arms embargo on Somalia for one year to permit the import of light weapons in order to rebuild Somalia's security apparatus.
But a report from the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea alleged that arms shipments to the government have been diverted to clan militias and in one case to an al-Shabaab commander, allegations that the Somali government denied.
The Security Council is expected to review the terms of the arms embargo March 6th.
"The Somali government has been unable to live up to its commitments," said Michelle Kagari, Africa deputy director at Amnesty International. "It would be short-sighted and dangerous for the Security Council not to restore a much stronger arms embargo as a key step to ending the proliferation and abuse of arms by armed groups responsible for human rights abuses in Somalia."