UN Security Council favours new mission to asses security

The United Nations Security Council recommended on Wednesday that a headquarters-led inter-agency United Nations mission be sent to Somalia to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the security situation in the country and prepare proposals for how the UN can assist the Transitional National Government (TNG). The Security Council reiterated its support for the Arta peace process, which led to the appointment last year of a Transitional National Assembly and Somalia's first government for more than a decade. "The Security Council believes that the Arta peace process continues to be the most viable basis for peace and national reconciliation in Somalia," Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen announced today on behalf of the Council. Addressing the Security Council on 19 October, former Somali Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galayr said that unless the TNG received more international support, then Somalia could disintegrate further and become a haven for international terrorists and drug-traffickers Cowen added that the Security Council expressed its continuing support for the TNG's efforts to enhance security in the Mogadishu area, and emphasised the need for efforts against international terrorism. The Security Council also expressed deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in parts of southern Somalia, where an estimated 300,000 people are at risk of famine. It called on UN member states to respond "urgently and generously" to the UN Consolidated Inter-Agency appeal for 2001, which so far is only 16 percent funded.