S/PV.8035 Security Council

In accordance with rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representative of Somalia to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2017/734, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by France, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2017/653, which contains the text of a letter dated 25 July 2017 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council. The Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it. I shall put the draft resolution to the vote now.

The draft resolution received 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2372 (2017). I shall now give the floor to those members of the Council who wish to make statements following the voting.

The United Kingdom welcomes the unanimous adoption of resolution 2372 (2017), which renews the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). As penholder, I thank all members of the Security Council for their cooperation. I would like to pay tribute in particular to Fiona Blyth of my team for holding the pen so commendably on Somalia, just as she leaves New York to go and work for the United Nations in Somalia. AMISOM’s continued presence in Somalia is critical to allow progress to continue, enable President Farmajo’s vision of reform to take root and allow time for Somalia to build its security capacity. The challenges ahead are daunting but today, once again, the Council has recommitted to supporting that vision. It is a significant turning point for AMISOM and for Somalia. For the very first time in AMISOM’s 10- year deployment, the Security Council has begun to reduce the total number of military personnel deployed in Somalia. There are many indicators of Somalia’s progress. Reducing the number of international troops and beginning the transition of security responsibility to Somalia itself is surely one of them. That progress would not have been possible without AMISOM’s bravery and sacrifice in Somalia. The commitment and tenacity demonstrated by the troop- and police-contributing countries of AMISOM against the brutal threat has provided the space for Somalia to hold successful electoral processes and to begin the slow task of State building. Now, it is time for a new approach to security, to focus not only on tackling the threat from Al-Shabaab, but crucially also on beginning the gradual hand-over of security responsibility to the Somali security forces themselves. It will take time, but at the London Somalia conference in May, Somalia and 42 international partners agreed a security pact for security reform to enable Somalia to provide that security and protection that its people so desperately need and deserve. Somalia wants to step up to that challenge and we all stand ready to support the country. We look forward to continuing to support progress and we are grateful for the continued presence of AMISOM, to allow Somalia to flourish.

We welcome the unanimous adoption of resolution 2372 (2017), which renews the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). It is a Mission that has been playing a very vital and, so far, indispensable role in support of peace and reconciliation in Somalia. We thank the United Kingdom for its efforts, as penholder, in facilitating negotiations on today’s resolution, and all members of the Security Council for their support. The positive prospects that we see so vividly in Somalia today and its relative stability would hardly have been possible without the contribution of AMISOM. If that point is missed, as it sometimes is, it is possible that any opinions we have about the state of peace in the Horn of Africa would have very little value. We are pleased that we have not encountered that in the course of the difficult negotiations on the resolutions. No doubt, the African Union Mission in Somalia is currently operating in a different environment and the proposed configuration of the Mission is indicative of the operational success and gains made over the past 10 years. Somalia is passing through an important phase in consolidating its State institutions, including the building of its national security forces, which will pave the way for the gradual and conditions-based drawdown of AMISOM. That is a historic achievement for the people of Somalia. That does not mean that the security challenges the country faces have all been addressed. In spite of the political and security gains made in recent years, Somalia still has a long way to go in its post-conflict recovery and peacebuilding endeavours. In that regard, the role of AMISOM will continue to be very critical in providing support to the political process, reconciliation, peacebuilding and capacity- building, security sector reform and to humanitarian assistance efforts in the country. Its mandate needs to be pursued in three components and be gradually shrunk and transitioned to one entity, which Somalia must take responsibility for. The three components must complement and reinforce each other in the delivery of the mandated tasks. As envisaged in the African Union Peace and Security Council communiqué of 12 July, the civilian component has not been reflected in the current resolution, which, in our view, is a serious omission. We hope that that will be rectified in the future. Nonetheless, we appreciate what the penholder has achieved. We would like to draw the attention of the Council to the following key points. First, both the joint review and the Secretary- General’s letter (S/2017/653) recognize the need to secure predictable and sustainable funding for AMISOM, possibly including United Nations assessed contributions to address the resourcing gap to the Mission and to Somalia. We look forward to the Secretary-General’s report on the future funding of AMISOM by November. We hope that we will be able to look at the bigger picture in Somalia so that the gains made in recent years, through enormous efforts and great sacrifice will not be in vain. That would be burden-sharing in practice. Secondly, the transition, based on a coherent national security architecture, requires an expedited operational readiness assessment of the Somali security forces, which, inter alia, will identify critical gaps and priorities in support of the Somali national security forces. Nonetheless, the lack of coordination and mutual reinforcing support on the part of partners is a cause for concern, as it might delay or negatively affect the envisaged AMISOM transition. Equally, cooperation and coordination will be important among the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia, the United Nations Support Office in Somalia, AMISOM and the Somali national security forces at all levels, including through the senior leadership coordination forum to enhance coordination efforts on the ground, based on the outcome of the joint review. Finally, we believe that decisions on the course of the transition in Somalia should be informed by taking a closer look at the situation on the ground in Somalia. That is why it was important that the resolution that we adopted today recognize the need for a continuous and comprehensive assessment of AMISOM, in close cooperation with the Africa Union and the Federal Government of Somalia to evaluate the process and make recommendations on the progressive transition from AMISOM to Somali security responsibility, taking into account the need for an objective evaluation of capacities.

Italy welcomes the unanimous adoption of resolution 2372 (2017), which reauthorizes the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). We would like to thank the penholder, the United Kingdom, for its excellent work on the text of the resolution. AMISOM has been doing a tremendous job in recent years. We wish to commend the African Union and the troop- and police-contributing countries on their efforts, and AMISOM on the high price in human lives it has paid for the cause. In the past month, the Somali Government has achieved much progress, from agreeing on the main principle of the national security architecture to the security pact for the coordinated development of the Somali security forces. The new framework will require some time to be fully operational. In our view, the decision taken by the Security Council to defer to October 2018 its consideration of the further steps of the Mission’s transition process is therefore very wise. Because the threat posed by Al-Shabaab remains very serious, the need to build up the Somali security forces in an effective manner retains all its strategic significance. At the same time, resolution 2372 (2017) sets out the timeline upon which the Council will speed up the shift from AMISOM to the Somali security forces, with regard to primary responsibility for security. The reconfiguration of the Mission in favour of a more robust presence of police personnel, as security conditions allow, will also prove to be instrumental to that end. For years, Italy has been advocating the added value of AMISOM and the Somali police to the stabilization of Somalia. We therefore look forward to further discussing that and other relevant matters pertaining to Somalia, a country we will continue to be strongly committed to, during the joint session the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council will hold in Addis Ababa next week.

I now give the floor to the representative of Somalia.

First, I want to welcome the adoption of resolution 2372 (2017), renewing the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). I would also like to thank the United Kingdom, as the penholder, for negotiating and drafting the resolution. I thank you, Sir, for the opportunity to speak before the Council today. I am honoured to address those present on behalf of the Federal Government of Somalia. I also congratulate you on assuming the presidency of the Security Council for the month of August. I would also like to take the opportunity to commend the Permanent Representative of China for his leadership in guiding the work of the Council for the month of July. As the Council has renewed the mandate of AMISOM today, I would like to express my gratitude to AMISOM troop-contributing countries for their enormous contribution during the past 10 years in Somalia. Their deployment has created the space for political progress, for humanitarian relief efforts and for Somalia’s political and State institutions to grow. There is no doubt that without their support and sacrifices, we would not have accomplished what we did in such a short period of time. But we are now entering a new phase of transition. President Mohamed Farmajo is committed to Somalia’s security forces, assuming responsibility for security in due course and gradually taking over tasks and posts from AMISOM. He sets out a clear vision for security based on mutual accountability, hand in hand with our partners, at the London Somalia Conference in May this year. Partnership will be key to a successful transition. Somalia will need the continued partnership of the troop- and police-contributing countries of AMISOM, as well as the partnership and support of donors to help us implement the Somali national security architecture in order to build a professional and inclusive security sector capable of providing security for Somalis to go about their everyday lives free from the threat of Al-Shabaab, while providing the country with secure borders and coastline. Even though the continued presence of AMISOM will be necessary to ensure that the progress and gains of the past 10 years are not reversed, the agreed transition from AMISOM to the Somali security forces should be condition-based, with clear targets dates linked to the security sector reform milestones outlined in the Somali national security architecture, which was endorsed by the National Security Council on 8 May. It is critical that the transition be undertaken in a cautious manner, with sustained predictable funding to AMISOM, since a too early withdrawal based on artificial and unrealistic deadlines might jeopardize the security gains achieved by AMISOM and the Somali security forces and send the wrong signal to our enemy, Al-Shabaab. The Federal Government of Somalia’s leadership is committed to putting in place the following principles: the implementation of effective coordination and cooperation among the military, police, intelligence agencies and civil administration; the development of an integrated intelligence network; the use of small and specially trained forces for precision strikes; and the continuation of the development of counter-insurgency. In conclusion, I would like to thank the Security Council for its unwavering support for Somalia’s progress. The vision of the Somali Government is to have a Somalia that has fully recovered from being a failed State and reached lasting peace. To ensure the realization of such a vision, we are working assiduously to provide security and justice, while preserving human rights, rule of law and good governance. We look forward to the new chapter of transition in the lead-up to holding a free and fair election system that is based on one person-one vote in 2021.