Security Council extends mandate of group monitoring Somalia arms embargo

Mugadishu, Tuesday, July 24, 2007 Simba Radio

The UN Security Council decided on Monday to extend the mandate of the group it established in 2004 to monitor the arms embargo on that country for an additional six months.

In passing resolution 1766, the 15-member council condemned “flows of weapons and ammunition supplies to and through Somalia in violation of the arms embargo as a serious threat to peace and stability in Somalia ."

The council requested the expert group to continue to investigate, in coordination with relevant international agencies, violations of the weapons ban, means of transport for illicit arms and activities that generate revenues to fund weapons purchases.

It also requested the group to work closely with the council committee on the embargo to develop recommendations for additional measures to improve compliance and to identify ways in which States in the region could be assisted to facilitate implementation of the sanctions regime.

It stressed the "obligation of all member states to comply fully with the measures imposed by resolution 733" adopted in January 1992, which established the embargo on all delivery of weapons and military equipment to Somalia .

The arms embargo was imposed on Somalia in 1992, a year after then president Muhammad Siad Barre's regime was toppled. The country has had no functioning national government since then and has been wracked by factional fighting.