Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki at the UN Security
Council meeting on Somalia.
Thank you President, I thank SRSG Liang and Special
Representative Souef for their briefing and I pay tribute to the
work of their teams in Somalia. I also welcome the participation
of the Permanent Representative of Somalia at our meeting.
President let me first address the Ethiopia-Somaliland Memorandum
of Understanding. As we have said previously, the United Kingdom
reaffirms its support for Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial
integrity.
The UK is a close friend and longstanding partner to both Somalia
and Ethiopia, and we are continuing to engage with both
governments directly.
The UK calls for calm dialogue to de-escalate the situation and
expresses its support for mediation efforts, including the work
of IGAD and the AU.
Turning to the situation in Somalia more broadly, the UK notes
that the Somali Parliament has begun to debate constitutional
amendments outlined in previous National Consultative Council
agreements, and urges the Federal Government to pursue a
consultative and consensus-building approach to ensure this
process has broad-based support among Somalis.
President, this year represents a milestone in Somalia’s security
transition. After 15 years of truly courageous service the
current AU and UN missions are due to leave at the end of the
year.
We look forward to receiving an update from Somalia next month on
its requirements into 2025 and beyond, and we encourage the UN
and AU to work together closely on next steps ahead of the
mandate renewal in June.
We recognise the funding problems AMISOM and ATMIS have faced. As
we have said many times, the UK has tried to play its part in
solving them.
But we are approaching a critical juncture. Somalia, the AU, UN
and partners have invested so much to get to where we are
today.
We do not want this progress to go to waste. So, we encourage all
Somalia’s partners to continue to support Somalia throughout its
security transition and to think about creative ways to maintain
support post-ATMIS and UNSOS. If we do not, it will be Al-Shabaab
who benefit.
Finally, President, Somalia’s changing security landscape
presents significant humanitarian risks alongside an already
severe and protracted humanitarian crisis.
It is therefore deeply concerning that the Humanitarian
Response Plan remains significantly underfunded.
The UK urges donors to contribute to the plan, to address the
urgent unmet need in Somalia.
Any alteration or decision on Somalia’s security must not
compromise protection of civilian and humanitarian access.
