Lift arms embargo – Somalia

The appeal follows al-Qaeda’s declaration last week that the Somali militant group al-Shabaab was joining its ranks, which raised concerns the Somali rebels’ weakened campaign might be re-energised.
Security experts say al-Shabaab might be encouraged to carry out an al-Qaeda-style attack, perhaps on Kenya, which has sent troops to Somalia to fight the Islamist insurgency.
Urging foreign powers to help, Mogadishu asked the international community to “lift the arms embargo on Somalia so that it could defend the country” and “increase and reinforce the Somali National Army”.
“We . . . believe that their union (al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda) will increase the insecurity in Somalia, east Africa and the rest of the world and that Somalia risks becoming an al-Qaeda base in east Africa,” Somalia’s information ministry said.
The United Nations imposed the arms embargo in 1992, the year after clan warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the country into civil conflict.
The embargo has been amended several times, including in 2006 to allow for an African peacekeeping force to prop up the government, and in 2007, in part to allow for the peacekeepers to be supplied with weapons and military equipment.
Asked about the Somali government request, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said during a visit to South Africa he thought lifting the embargo would be “difficult to do, and in some instances, may be very unwise to do”.
“What we are doing is trying to make sure that the African Union and UN-supported forces in Somalia are strengthened, and have the funding to do their job and to grow in number over the coming years,” he told Reuters in Cape Town. – Reuters.