UN Security Council urges Somali leaders to agree on elections

UN Security Council urges Somali leaders to agree on elections

2011-05-27 05:07:42 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations Security Council on Thursday called on Somalia's feuding political figures to agree on a schedule for the elections by August when the transitional period expires.

Augustine Mahiga, the top U.N. envoy in Somalia, said political divisions between Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and interim Parliament have undermined the momentum of the country's peace process. The UN Security Council said they should end the longstanding political strife in a consultative meeting slated to take place in Mogadishu between 11 and 16 June.

"The international community expects that at that their meeting there should be agreement on the timing of elections, roadmap and benchmarks for the way forward in the political process in Somalia," said Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant of the United Kingdom at a news conference yesterday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where members of the Security Council focused on the situation in Somalia.

The country's transitional parliament voted in February to extend its term for three years after the end of the transitional period, a move rejected by the TFG, which has instead proposed extending the interim period for one year. Somalia has had a transitional government since 2004.

Mr. Lyall Grant said the Council, which met with Somalia's president, prime minister and speaker of parliament in Nairobi, demanded that they "should stop the infighting and unilateral extensions of their respective mandates."

Members of the Council also expressed their full support for the work of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), and stressed the need to strengthen the Somali security forces. They also called for a collaborative campaign against maritime piracy off the coast of Somalia.

Meanwhile, Somalis continue to flee violence and poverty in their homeland. An estimated 1.5 million Somalis are internally displaced due to the violence in the southern and central regions. In Mogadishu, fighting, terrorist attacks and indiscriminate shelling are causing death and destruction, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee the city.

In addition, an approximate 678,000 Somalis live as refugees in the neighboring countries. In 2011, more than 200,000 people have been displaced in Somalia while another 70,000 have fled to neighboring countries.

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