UN extends mandate for Somalia arms embargo panel

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council voted yesterday to extend for a further six months the mandate of a panel monitoring its 15-year-old arms embargo in Somalia.
The 15-member body unanimously adopted a British-drafted resolution that also intends, following a recent report by the monitors, "to consider specific action to improve implementation of any compliance with" the embargo.

The panel of independent experts was mandated "to investigate, in coordination with relevant international agencies, all activities, including in the financial, maritime and other sectors, which generate revenues used to commit arms embargo violations."

Resolution 1766 also directed the panel to refine and update information on individuals and entities that violate the embargo.

Meanwhile the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that for the first time since early June, more people have left Mogadishu than have returned to the city, with over 10,000 people fleeing the Somali capital last week.

UN agencies have estimated that at least one-third of Mogadishu's residents have fled because of fighting this year between government and Muslim forces.

They estimate the number of Somali internally displaced persons at 400,000 for this year, and many among them were displaced several times as a result of ongoing conflict.

"The continuing violence is again driving civilians from their homes and making life extremely difficult for those who remain," said OCHA chief John Holmes.

"The humanitarian community also needs a safer environment to carry out its life-saving work".

Home to about 10 million people, Somalia has been plagued by instability that has defied more than a dozen peace initiatives since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Siad Barre.