PRESS STATEMENT ON SOMALIA BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Following is today’s press statement on Somalia by the President of the Security Council, Mikhail Wehbe (Syria):

Members of the Council received a briefing by Carolyn McAskie, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, on the humanitarian situation in Somalia.

Members of the Council express their deep concern about the humanitarian situation in Somalia, including in the northern parts of the Gedo region, where successive waves of fighting have caused casualties, large-scale internal displacement and outflow of refugees, while also disrupting the provisions of the humanitarian assistance to the populations in the region.

Members of the Council express concern at the presence of refugees along the border, and urge neighbouring states to live up to their international obligations to move refugees away from border areas.

Members of the Council, expressing their concern that without the

re-establishment of humanitarian access in the Gedo region the population could suffer dramatically, calls on all parties involved to fulfil urgently their obligations to guarantee the access and safety to all humanitarian agencies and their personnel.

Members of the Council, underlining the interlinkages between the humanitarian situation and the efforts for peace and the building of institutions in Somalia, condemns the renewed violence further undermining the prosperity and lives of the people and the peace process in the country.

Members of the Council are deeply concerned about the continued and destabilizing flow of weapons and ammunition supplies to Somalia from other countries and express their determination to generate independent information on violations of the arms embargo established by resolution 733 (1992), in accordance with resolution 1407 (2002).

Members of the Council underline that problems in livestock exports have severely affected the humanitarian situation in Somalia, and encourage States who maintain the ban to take active steps towards the resumption of livestock imports from Somalia.

Members of the Council express concern about the under-funding of the

UN Inter-Agency Appeal for Somalia for 2002 and encourage donors to come forward with contributions to help alleviating the suffering of the Somali people.