UN condemns arms embargo violations

The UN Security Council has condemned the increase in the flow of arms and ammunition into Somalia in violation of a 13-year-old arms embargo against the war-scarred Horn of Africa nation. In a resolution on Friday, the Council underscored the importance of "enhancing the monitoring of the [...] through persistent and vigilant investigation into the violations, bearing in mind that strict enforcement of the arms embargo will improve the overall security situation". The resolution followed findings by a UN monitoring team that violations - both by the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), its opponents in the capital, Mogadishu, and certain states in the region - had recently taken a "sustained and dramatic upswing". In a report released on 4 October, the team said the increased arms inflow was a manifestation of "highly aggravated political tensions between the TFG and the opposition". The UN imposed an arms embargo on Somalia in 1992, in the midst of a civil war that followed the 1991 collapse of the government of President Muhammad Siyad Barre. The Council urged all UN member states and particularly those in the region, to refrain from any action in contravention of the arms embargo and take action to hold violators accountable. It requested UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to re-establish the monitoring group for a further six months to continue its work in the country. Annan appointed a four-member panel of experts to investigate violations of the embargo against Somalia in September 2002. He re-established the monitoring group for a six-month period in March 2005 following reports that armed Somali factions were still receiving weapons from various sources.