UN Security Council to lift Somalia’s decades-long arms ban
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has said that the United Nations Security Council will lift the three-decades-long arms embargo on the East African country.
The President in an address in the nation’s parliament house on November 25 said that the cancellation of the embargo, which he expects to happen in December, will enable the nation’s army to obtain weapons to aid in its fight against the Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabaab.
"This year, we set five national goals, which included debt relief, freeing the nation from Al-Shabaab, lifting the arms embargo, and joining the East Africa Community (EAC). The arms embargo will be lifted early next month,” the President told the nation’s lawmakers.
“It's time for Somalia to free a large number of locations nationwide from Al-Shabaab extremists, using my army to do so,” he added.
President Mahamud recently said that the East African nation had about a year to eliminate the threat of the Islamist militant group, expressing that leaders of the militant group have made no intentions to initiate a dialogue.
Somalia was recently announced as the newest member of the East African Community (EAC) and also received preliminary approval for a $100 million, 36-month support programme from the IMF after recent floods in the country.
