AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Wednesday warned Somali rival factions that any use of force to resolve their differences was “unacceptable”, and meanwhile condemned violations of the UN arms embargo and acts of piracy off the Somali coast.
In a statement read by its current president, Russia's UN envoy Andrei Denisov, the 15-member council expressed concern over “recent reported military activities and hostile rhetoric” in Somalia.
It “emphasizes that any resort to military force as a means for dealing with the current difference within the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs) is unacceptable.”
The council also strongly condemned Sunday's assassination bid on Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi in Mogadishu.
Five people were killed when a remote-controlled bomb hit a car in Gedi's motorcade.
Gedi and Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed face huge opposition from Somali warlords over their plan to base the central administration in Jowhar, 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of the Somali capital.
They argue that Mogadishu, the center of violence that has wracked Somalia for the past 14 years, is too unsafe.
The Horn of African nation has been deeply divided on the issue since the transitional government relocated from neighbouring Kenya in June.
Powerful warlords insist that the transitional leader is barred by the constitution-like federal charter from transferring the capital away from bullet-scarred Mogadishu.
“Today the problem of Somalia is, the restoration of the government is not complete,” UN envoy Francois Fall told reporters here after briefing the security council.
“Because of the arms embargo in Somalia, forces could not be deployed in Mogadishu to relocate the government there,” he said.
Tuesday, Somalia's UN envoy Elmi Ahmed Duale blasted the UN arms embargo and called for it to be lifted.
The security council meanwhile also expressed “concern and disappointment” over the non-functioning of the Transitional Federal Parliament in the Horn of Africa nation, which has been lacked an effective government for the last 14 years.
It also slammed the “increased flow of weapons into Somalia and the continuous violations of the UN arms embargo”, and voiced serious concern over “increasing incidents of piracy” off the Somali coast.
In recent months, brazen pirate attacks affecting both commercial and humanitarian ships have turned the spolight on the growing danger along the 3,700 kilometre-long (2,300-mile) coastline, which has been unpatrolled since 1991 when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled.
On Saturday, the US-owned cruise ship Seabourn Spirit, carrying more than 300 tourists and crew, escaped an attack by Somali pirates on speedboats by changing course and speeding off toward the Seychelles instead of the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.
