Press Conference by Special Representative of Secretary-General for Somalia

 

Even as the withdrawal of militant Al-Shabaab forces marked a critical opportunity to reach Mogadishu’s starving population, fresh challenges — including insufficient manpower — now threatened humanitarian operations, said top officials during a Headquarters press conference today.

The Somali Transitional Federal Government, alongside the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), with the support of international partners, now controlled 95 per cent of Somalia’s capital, said Augustine Mahiga, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia, via video link from Somalia’s capital.  The “significant improvement” in the city’s security situation was the first seen in many years.

But the windfall had come at a critical time, warned Mr. Mahiga, who was joined by Major General Fred Mugisha, the newly appointed Force Commander of AMISOM.   Mogadishu was among five Somali zones in which a state of famine — the result of a crippling drought across the Horn of Africa — had been declared in recent weeks.

Al-Shabaab, a religious insurgent group designated by much of the international community as a terrorist organization, controls much of south and central Somalia, the regions worst affected by the famine.  With its departure from the capital, said Mr. Mahiga, the Transitional Federal Government now required a rapid scale-up in its capacity on the ground.  Some 3,000 additional troops would be needed to augment the existing 9,000-strong presence, he said in response to one correspondent, who asked for clarification on AMISOM’s operational needs.

The 12,000 troops — a number mandated by the United Nations Security Council last December — were needed to complete the first phase of a three-part strategy, which focused solely on Mogadishu.  A total of 20,000 troops had been requested by the African Union to complete the future phases, which Mr. Mahiga said would go beyond the city borders.  Most immediately pressing was the need to secure access for international humanitarian agencies seeking to bring food and supplies into the capital, he stressed, with Mr. Mugisha adding that the Transitional Federal Government lacked not only the necessary manpower but supplies and air capacity, as well.

Responding to a question about the future of Al-Shabaab, and, in particular, whether the insurgents might have left Mogadishu strategically to “regroup” and return at a later time, the Force Commander said he did not believe any such effort would be successful.  “On the whole, I think they’re weakening,” he said.  Mr. Mahiga added that Al-Shabaab forces had split off in different directions as they left the capital, which weakened their consolidated strength.  The group was being starved of financial support as many of its former backers in the Middle East now grappled with their own regional instability.  Additionally, AMISOM had successfully cut off much of Al-Shabaab’s local funding, he said.

In response to a question about the expanding presence of the United Nations in Mogadishu, where the Organization had been effectively denied access since 2010, Mr. Mahiga said he hoped to raise the number of staff stationed in the city from the current number of 4 to 24 by the end of the year.  In such a high-risk setting, even temporary accommodations were complex, he said; the bullet-proof containers where staff was required to sleep were difficult to build as they required specialized materials and capacity.  Outside Mogadishu, the United Nations had a 12-staff presence in the Somali state of Puntland, he added, and local staff recruitment was currently under way in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland district.

Several events concerning Somalia were scheduled to take place in the coming months, said Mr. Mahiga, including another briefing to the Security Council and a high-level “summit of ministers” to take place on 23 September on the sidelines of the General Assembly’s general debate.  Among other goals, that meeting would aim to sustain international attention on Somalia.  It would also seek to reinforce the humanitarian response to the drought, which was likely to persist until the region’s next harvest season, nearly six months away.

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For information media • not an official record