UN envoy in Somalia urges immediate halt to fighting

Condemning the resumption of armed hostilities in Somalia, the United Nations envoy in the country today urged all parties to stop fighting immediately and unconditionally.

“Somalia is already at war with nature and poverty,” said François Lonsény Fall, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, in a statement released in Nairobi. “The last thing this country needs is for its leaders to be fighting among themselves.”

Ambassador Fall said he was deeply disturbed by the fighting which has cost civilian lives and brought further insecurity to the UN humanitarian workers trying to address the serious drought situation.

“This is a time for pulling together, not for pulling further apart,” he said, urging those faction leaders in Mogadishu, who are also cabinet members in transitional federal government, to put down their arms and join the political process in Baidoa.

Prior to the current fighting, it appeared that Somali leaders were moving fast towards reconciliation. They had agreed on a transitional charter and members of the parliament were engaged in efforts to frame a constitution - the first signs of centralized governance in more than 15 years of civil strife.

“Given Somalia’s tragic recent history, these are not small achievements,” Ambassador Fall said, adding that the UN and the international community remained fully committed to building on its longstanding support for Somalia. “However, we need a country that is universally committed to security for those efforts so that we can move ahead at maximum speed.”

He said he was troubled by reports that militia of the union of the Shariah courts and the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism were deploying in and around city and supplying their lines with munitions, with external assistance in “direct breach” of the UN arms embargo.

Regardless of such violations, the UN and its agencies would continue to stay the course in Somalia, Ambassador Fall said, adding that the Organization’s humanitarian workers were operating in “emergency mode” across the spectrum of human needs in Somalia.

“There is no question,” he said, “that we will continue to deliver, as we have for decades, ramping up our support as needed in food and water supply, health care and shelter, both for local population and tens of thousands of Somalis who have been displaced by prolonged by prolonged conflict, droughts and floods.”

The Special Representative noted, however, that the serious obstacles to the national progress would remain until those “with the guns and political influence” made a strong commitment to peace and reconciliation. “The power for peace and change for the better in Somalia is in the hands of the warlords,” he said.