Somalia calls for end to weapons embargo

Somalia has called on the UN to lift weapons embargo imposed on it for being an obstacle for the efforts to establish special security forces.

The Somali president Abdullah Youssef Ahmad said on Saturday in a speech before the UN General Assembly that this embargo which has been in force since 1992 also prevented the dispatching of a peace mission to protect the interim government in the country.

Youssef Ahmad stressed that the "embargo undermines directly the right of the government and its sincere efforts to form a national security force to assume the protection of people and preserve peace through introducing law and order in all parts of Somalia."

He indicated that the UN Security Council has to help the federal interim government to establish peace in the country through reviewing the use of the weapons's embargo and lifting it immediately.

In July, the UN Security Council refused the alleviation of the embargo imposed but it said it will reconsider it after receiving a report from the north African states which want to dispatch peace keeping forces there.

The African Union asked to be excluded from this embargo so as to be able to bring in weapons to Somalia in order to arm a peace keeping force there. The force which is estimated at 10,000 soldiers from 7 countries in East Africa is expected to protect the Somali interim government.

Despite the UN embargo, weapons flowed into Somalia via border areas where security is lacking, while pistols and missiles are sold in open in the capital Mogadishu.