Malta adopts Security Council resolution on Somalia
Malta has formally adopted a United Nations Security Council resolution to re-establish a monitoring group on the arms embargo in Somalia.
The resolution binds member states to prohibit the entry into Malta of any person designated by the monitoring group, who may suspected of financing arms sales to Somalia.
The monitoring group investigates all activities, including in the financial, maritime and other sectors, which generate cash for the violation of the Somali arms embargo. This includes investigating transport, routes, seaports, airports and other facilities used in connection with those violations.
The arms embargo on Somalia has been in effect for more than 16 years. Most serviceable weapons and almost all ammunition currently available in Somalia have been delivered since 1992, in violation of the embargo.
Since then, Somali armed forces and groups remain in possession of fairly limited arsenals, consisting principally of small arms and crew-served infantry weapons. These range from Kalashnikov machine guns, pistols and hand grenades, to anti-aircraft cannons, anti-tank weapons and medium mortars. There are a small number of functioning armoured vehicles, artillery pieces and rocket artillery, which are rarely used in combat.
But both Ethiopia and Eritrea provide support to allied Somali groups and armed opposition groups, while Yemen is the most important source of commercial arms transfers to Somalia. External contributions to build the capacity of the Transitional Federal Government security forces have provided an important loophole through which arms, equipment and military skills are diverted to the open market or to armed opposition groups.
The UN says the phenomenal growth of piracy in recent months is also in part driven by non-enforcement of the arms embargo, due to ready access to arms and ammunition.
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