S/PV.8976 Security Council

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. At this meeting, the Council will hear a briefing by Ambassador Jim Kelly, Chargé affaires, a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations, on behalf of the Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia. I now give the floor to Ambassador Kelly. Ambassador Kelly: As mandated by paragraph 11 (g) of resolution 1844 (2008), I have the honour to brief the Security Council in my capacity as Chair of the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia, covering the period from 21 October 2021 to 24 February 2022. This is the first Chair’s briefing since the adoption of resolution 2607 (2021) on 15 November 2021. Allow me to recall that, under this resolution, the Council reaffirmed the partial lifting of the arms embargo on Somalia and the humanitarian exemption to the assets freeze, without specifying an expiry date; renewed and expanded the maritime interdiction of arms and charcoal, by including the maritime interdiction of improvised explosive device (IED) components, until 15 November 2022; reaffirmed the IED components ban; and renewed, until 15 December 2022, the mandate of the Panel of Experts on Somalia. On 16 December 2021, the Secretary-General appointed five of the Panel’s six experts. He will appoint the Panel’s regional expert as soon as possible. In resolution 2607 (2021), the Council also requested the Federal Government of Somalia, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Panel to continue to exchange information about Al-Shabaab’s finances and to continue to work with stakeholders to develop a plan to disrupt Al-Shabaab’s finances and exploitation of the licit financial system. It further requested the Secretary-General to provide, following the completion of a technical assessment of Somalia’s weapons and ammunition management capability, recommendations to improve it further and to articulate options for clear, well- identified and realistic benchmarks that could serve in guiding the Security Council in its review of the arms embargo measures in light of progress achieved to date and compliance with resolution 2607 (2021), and requested the Panel to provide recommendations to the Committee on how to support the Federal Government in weapons and ammunition management. I would like to note that on 18 February 2022 the Committee included Ali Mohamed Rage, the spokesperson of Al-Shabaab, in its sanctions list. During the reporting period, Committee members met twice in informal consultations. On 10 December 2021, the Committee was briefed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Pramila Patten. During her briefing, she elaborated on patterns and trends of sexual violence in Somalia. She also presented recommendations to the Committee. Committee members expressed support for her important work and encouraged the continued exchange of information between her Office and the Panel of Experts. On 11 February 2022, the Committee met with the Panel of Experts on Somalia renewed by resolution 2607 (2021). It heard a presentation by the Coordinator of the Panel of Experts on developments in Somalia relevant to the Panel’s mandate, on the Panel’s ongoing lines of investigations and on its areas of focus for the renewed mandate. The areas of focus include the structure of Al-Shabaab, the smuggling and trafficking of weapons and military equipment into Somalia, weapons and ammunition management within Somalia, investigations into Al-Shabaab finances, the implementation of the charcoal ban, as well as child recruitment and gender- based violence by the group. Committee members welcomed the continued improvement in the Panel’s relationship with the Federal Government of Somalia, particularly the cooperation extended by the Federal Government in connection with the implementation of the charcoal ban. During the reporting period, the Committee received three thematic reports from the Panel of Experts on Somalia pursuant to paragraph 34 of resolution 2551 (2020). The Committee also received a preliminary report on the possible export of charcoal from Somalia from the Panel under its present mandate. Information was also received directly from Somalia on this case, which the Committee appreciates. I will now summarize the statistics with regard to arms embargo exemption requests and notifications. The Committee received and approved one advance approval request pursuant to paragraph 23 of resolution 2607 (2021). It also received three advance-delivery notifications pursuant to paragraph 24 of the same resolution, as well as one post-delivery notification pursuant to paragraph 32 of the same resolution. Furthermore, it received four notifications pursuant to paragraph 27 of resolution 2607 (2021).

I thank Ambassador Kelly for his briefing. There are no more names inscribed on the list of speakers.