Eliasson urges UNSC to support AMISOM, Somali forces

UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson urged the Security Council on Wednesday to boost the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the Somali government forces with troops and equipment, otherwise all the gains achieved so far against Al-Shabab militants will be lost. "AMISOM and the Somali forces need a significant temporary boost to maintain the basis security required for peace-building, as well as to respond to the evolving threat from Al-Shabab," Eliasson, who visited the Somali capital Mogadishu last weekend, told the Council. "Neither AMISOM nor the Somali army has the capacity to push beyond areas already recovered," and "their hold of the existing territory would be tenuous if the current status-quo continues," he warned. He explained that while those forces remain largely static, Al-Shabab is mobile and is training and recruiting substantial numbers of frustrated, unemployed young men, adding that although weakened, the insurgency is still able to conduct terror operations, not only in its areas of control, but in Mogadishu and elsewhere, as witnessed in last month's attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. He said AMISOM needs helicopters and other enablers to recover "strategic locations" that are exploited by Al-Shabab to generate revenues, and the Somali forces need non-lethal and logistic support, such as medical, transport, tents, food and fuel. He said he was told by the Somali authorities while in Somalia that "without this support to the National Forces, no significant progress should be expected." "I urge the Security Council to find ways to adequately provide for this support -- It is hard to ask for additional resources in our present difficult financial environment. But it is my duty to advise this Council that, without increased support, our present - and indeed past - investment in peace, and that of millions of Somalis, may be lost," he argued. He later told reporters that the next three- year period, until the 2016 elections, is "absolutely crucial if we are to improve the chances that the Somalis will go in a new direction." Somali Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Fowsiya Yusuf H. Adan told the Council that Somalia is changing for the better. "The Council's commitment and sustained partnership in the support of critical priorities in Somalia is at a turning point with the view to advance a global peace and security." "Significant progress has been achieved in Somalia, and the Somalia people and Government are determined to further strengthen the cooperation with the global society," she vowed.