S/PV.8665 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/2019/880, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2019/858, which contains a letter dated 1 November 2019 from the Chair of the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia 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 12 votes in favour, none against and 3 abstentions. The draft resolution is adopted as resolution 2498 (2019). I now give the floor to those members of the Council who wish to make statements after the voting.

The Russian Federation was compelled to abstain in the voting on resolution 2498 (2019), extending the sanctions against Somalia. We agree that the situation in that country in the Horn of Africa remains tumultuous. We took an active part in the efforts to identify and clarify the provisions of the Somali arms embargo. We hope that this and other measures provided for in the resolution will help to normalize the situation and eradicate the terrorist threat posed principally by Al-Shabaab. However, we remain concerned about some of the resolution’s wording. Specifically, we believe that including language on Djibouti and Eritrea in the text of a Security Council document on the Somali sanctions regime is not justified. We would like to point out that last year we in the Council lifted restrictions on Eritrea. The situation of the relations between Asmara and Djibouti does not pose a threat to international peace and security, and the settlement of outstanding issues between those two countries is a matter of bilateral diplomacy. We also regret the fact that the sponsor sought to overburden the document with human rights requirements. We want to emphasize once again that these issues do not come under the direct purview of either the Security Council or the Committee pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia. There is a specific body for discussing them, and that is the Human Rights Council. We once again call for respecting the division of labour in the United Nations. In conclusion, I would like to express our significant concerns about the artificially created time pressure in the process of drafting the resolution. The result was that Council members were put in the difficult position of having to agree on an important text in a big hurry, while racing against the clock, despite the fact that it had undergone serious, substantive changes compared with last year’s. My delegation made every effort to save the situation and preserve the consensus in support of the document, which is so essential for our Somali friends. We deeply regret that our suggestions were not heeded, and we hope that our British colleagues will draw the necessary conclusions so that the situation is not repeated.

The situation in Somalia remains generally stable at present. The Federal Government has actively promoted national reconstruction and made important progress on the political, economic and security fronts. However, achieving lasting peace in Somalia remains a challenge. The international community and the Security Council should continue to provide support and assistance to Somalia in keeping with the principle of Somali leadership and ownership. The Council has just adopted resolution 2498 (2019). China participated actively in the consultations on the draft resolution to renew the mandate of the Somalia Sanctions Committee and put forward reasonable recommendations and proposals in a constructive manner, based on the needs of the country concerned. We have noted the efforts of the penholder and the improvements made to the text, but some of our proposals were not adopted, regrettably. China still has concerns about some of the content, and we were compelled to abstain in the voting. China believes that the current situation in the Horn of Africa is steadily improving and is at a new stage of development. The relationship between Djibouti and Eritrea does not pose a threat to international and regional peace and security. Both countries are committed to normalizing relations and have made great efforts to that end. The Security Council and the international community should recognize that, acknowledge their efforts and, based on respect for the sovereignty of the two countries, provide assistance in good faith to avoid imposing a solution. The alternative will only be counterproductive. With regard to human rights, China has always believed that human rights issues should be discussed in specialized bodies, such as the Human Rights Council. The Security Council is not the appropriate forum to discuss human rights issues. The Council should abide by its mandate and focus on issues related to international peace and security, including in the work of its subsidiary bodies, where the same principle applies. The relevant text of the resolution may set a bad precedent and affect the Council’s deliberations on the issue of Somali sanctions. China has reservations in that regard. China hopes that the Council will conduct extensive consultations on draft resolutions in future and avoid hastily putting them to a vote in order to achieve maximum consensus.

This morning the Security Council has just adopted resolution 2498 (2019), by which it renews the sanctions on Somalia. My delegation supports the Panel of Experts on Somalia and welcomes its hard work in helping to improve the security situation in Somalia and the Horn of Africa. We encourage it to do its utmost to always work in coordination with the Somali authorities. However, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea abstained in the voting on the resolution, since we believe that the negotiating process that led to its adoption was not sufficiently extensive to take into account certain important considerations that our delegation shared with some members. Our request sought to achieve a balanced text that reflected the various proposals and was in line with the current political situation in the Horn of Africa. We would have liked that issues not directly related to the resolution not be mentioned in it.

At the outset, we welcome the adoption of resolution 2498 (2019), which renews the sanctions on Somalia for one year. We thank the United Kingdom, the penholder, for its transparent approach and constructive cooperation throughout the negotiations. Renewal reflects the importance of continuing to support Somalia at this crucial phase in its history. We hope that the coming period will see progress in terms of monitoring implementation of the sanctions. At the same time, we also applaud the efforts of the Federal Government of Somalia to pave the way towards general elections in 2020 and 2021. We call on all Somali parties to join efforts in order to overcome barriers that hamper social, political and economic integration and improvements in the security situation and to prioritize national interests above all else. In that context, we hope to continue our shared vision of assisting the Somali people in building a united federal State that protects the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all citizens. In conclusion, we reiterate our call for respect for the independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Somalia. We call on the international community to continue its political and financial support to the Federal Government of Somalia to enable it to rebuild the State and restore stability.

Belgium welcomes the adoption of resolution 2498 (2019), which extends the partial lifting of the embargo to support security sector reform in Somalia. The sanctions regime contributes to the fight against Al-Shabaab and to countering threats to peace and security in Somalia, which also affect the neighbouring countries. Belgium welcomes the efforts made by the United Kingdom penholder to update the embargo measures in order to enhance their transparency and to take into account the threat posed by improvised explosive devices. We also welcome the clear language emphasizing the need for the sanctions committee to exchange information with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The resolution also renews the mandate of the Panel of Experts on Somalia, and we call on the Federal Government of Somalia to resume cooperation with the experts, which should enable us to work together towards the common goal of peace and security in Somalia.

I give the floor to the representative of Somalia.

Allow me to congratulate you, Madam President, on your presidency of the Security Council for this month. I would also like to commend your predecessor, the Permanent Representative of South Africa, my brother Ambassador Jerry Matjila, for his exemplary leadership in guiding the work of the Council in the month of October. We take note with a reservation regarding resolution 2498 (2019) just adopted, which renews the sanctions regime on Somalia. We regret that important inputs were not considered so as to reach consensus. The Federal Government of Somalia goes on record again in seeking the lifting of the sanctions imposed on Somalia since 1992. In that regard, I would like to raise the following four points. First, the sanctions imposed on Somalia constitute the longest-standing United Nations sanctions regime with the broadest mandate. Not only do the measures of this outdated Somali sanctions regime fall short in taking into account the Somali positive new reality on the ground but they are also not properly aligned with the Federal Government’s flagship policy of rebuilding a unified and sufficiently equipped Somali National Army capable of safeguarding our people and territory. Despite our belief that sanctions are flawed in principle, they continue to be imposed on Somalia without any clearly defined benchmarks to attain the full lifting of the sanctions. We welcome the visit by the Secretary-General’s technical assessment mission to Mogadishu in June to conduct a review of the arms embargo. We have taken the team’s recommendations on board. Secondly, as the Council is aware, the terrorist group Al-Shabaab remains a serious threat to the peace and stability of Somalia and of the region. The international community has generously spent millions of dollars on the United Nations Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group and the Panel of Experts on Somalia for the past decade. We firmly believe that that is not sustainable and will not properly address the root cause of the problem. Since we have limited capacity for securing the remote areas along our borders, we call our partners to invest in improving our Government’s capacity in border control to curb the flows of foreign fighters and illegal weapons, as well as other resources. It is our main responsibility to monitor and safeguard our borders. Thirdly, the military base in Berbera continues to be in clear violation of Somali sovereignty and territorial integrity and contravenes the relevant Security Council resolutions. I take this opportunity to commend the Council for taking my Government’s complaint on board with regard to the build-up of the military in Berbera. We welcome the Council’s ongoing offer of efforts to swiftly address those blatant violations. Fourthly, the best practice in monitoring a United Nations arms embargo is to include expertise regarding the subject matter and use evidence-based reporting with a reasonable standard of proof. However, there seems to be very little consideration given to such a practice today. Although the number of panellists on the Panel of Experts on Somalia is one of the largest among United Nations sanctions regimes, the quality of their work and reports remains mixed due to their questionable level of technical professionalism and regional expertise. And yet the Panel continues to report false accusations, claims and gossip, undermining our reform efforts and our fight against the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. The Federal Government of Somalia will not tolerate the naming of Somali individuals and business enterprises in past, current or future Panel of Experts reports without a reasonable standard of proof. In that regard, in order to pave the way for future collaboration, we call for the establishment of a reliable mechanism to redress cases where allegations are wrongly made. We also suggest selecting from a pool of experts with a high level of technical professionalism and regional expertise, in line with the Security Council’s best practices, to conduct future investigations in Somalia. In conclusion, we thank the Security Council for its continuous support for Somalia’s progress. We encourage our partners to invest in the sustainable solution we have identified in order to counter current threats. That is the only way we Somali people can reach lasting peace in Somalia.