UN Seeking More Funds to Aid Somalian Gov't
New York, Oct 27 2009 3:10PM
The United Nations will be seeking more funds for Somalia for both security and social services, the top United Nations political officer said today, citing a sense that progress is being made in a country devastated by factional fighting and without a central authority for nearly 20 years.
“Nobody
obviously wants to sound overly optimistic about Somalia at
any time, but the fact is that the strategy is in place and
that it is moving forward,” Under-Secretary-General for
Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe told a news conference in
New York on his return from a visit to Eastern and Southern
Africa.
“The most important thing to mention is that
the TFG (Transitional Federal Government) has certainly,
under the new leadership after Sheikh Sharif [Sheikh Ahmed]
was elected president [in January], gone way out of its way
in trying to be inclusive and trying to bring people
in.”
Most of the various groups that were in
opposition or out have joined the Government, although two
main extremist Islamist groups are still fighting, he added,
citing the fact that the TFG now has a plan of how it wants
to move forward.
“I think that anyone who looks at
Somalia would not call the situation there anything but
fragile, but unlike a few months ago when everyone was
making dire predictions that the Government was going to
fall, that it was going to be taken over, I don’t think
people are making any of that assumption at the moment,”
he said.
“There are serious threats to be dealt
with, there is no question about that, and it’s going to
take a very long time to move the process forward,” he
added, stressing that funding is a serious
problem.
“I would guess that we will be asking for
more money and more assistance in the months ahead. Clearly
they’re going to need it both for security and also for
the social services the Government needs to provide. One of
the difficulties about Somalia, of course, is that without
the aid and the assistance for real development aid, then
it’s very hard for the Government to show what it’s
doing.”
On security, Mr. Pascoe noted improvements
in the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Somalia
(known as AMISOM). “Again the stories on AMISOM a year or
so ago were how it was all falling apart, how dire the
situation was,” he said, but AMISOM has been doing well
recently, with support from the UN Department of Field
Services and food and logistics support also
coming.
“This has had a real in effect in the
confidence of the forces there,” he added, noting that
Burundi and Uganda are putting in more battalions, others
are talking of joining the force and a process is in place
for reaching the target strength of 8,000. It now numbers
5,000.
“What I found very encouraging myself in
talking to both the Ugandans and the Burundians and with the
AU people is that you didn’t have that kind of level of
discouragement that you had a year or so back, that they now
really can see a path forward,” he said.
During his
visit Mr. Pascoe co-chaired a high-level meeting in Nairobi,
Kenya, on implementing the peace pact between the TFG and
some of its Islamist militant
opponents.
ENDS