Mandate of UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea extended

Addis Ababa, July 27 (WIC) - The UN Security Council on Wednesday (July 25) extended for another year the mandate of the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.

In a resolution adopted unanimously, the Council extended the Group’s mandate until August 25th, 2013.

The mandate covers violations of the arms embargoes on Somalia and Eritrea, and now includes all activities, including financial and maritime activities, which generate revenue that can then be used to break the arms embargoes.

The main tasks of the Group remains assessment of the practical enforcement of the arms embargo on Somalia and the monitoring of Eritrea’s support to Islamist insurgencies in Somalia in particular and the destabilizing activities in the region in general which resulted in imposition of sanctions by the Security Council.

The Group is also tasked with examining any means of transport, routes, seaports, airports and other facilities used in connection with violation of the embargoes.

It is also to continue to refine and update information on the list of those engaged in violations of the arms embargoes. On July 25th, the Sanctions Committee added the name of Aboud Rogo Mohammed to the list.

Describing him as a “an extremist Islamic cleric based in Kenya…[and] the main ideological leader of Al Hijra, formerly known as the Muslim Youth Center, [and using this] as a pathway for radicalization and recruitment …to carry out violent military activity in Somalia.” The Monitoring Group released its latest reports earlier this month.

The Security Council resolution also decided that the arms embargo on Somalia should not apply to supplies of weapons and military equipment, or the provision of assistance, for use of the UN Political Office for Somalia; and it excluded supplies of non-lethal military equipment intended solely for humanitarian or protective use.