NAIROBI, May 17, 2006 -- Several African governments on Wednesday appealed to the United Nations Security Council to partially lift the arms embargo on Somalia to enable them deploy a peacekeeping mission in the warlord-infested country.

Barely a day after the UN Security Council condemned violations of the 14-year-embargo, the seven-nation Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) said lifting it would assist Somalia's fledgling government to enhance national security.

IGAD is an African inter-governmental organization aiming at preventing conflicts and promoting development. The member states include Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia.

"Kenya is going to write to UN Security Council to seek partial lifting of the arms embargo on Somalia to enable the government to recruit its own security forces and also for IGAD to deploy its support mission," Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju told a news conference in Nairobi.

"We have also agreed that Kenya as chairman of IGAD will be writing to the UN Security Council to urgently address the crisis in Somalia and particularly Mogadishu city," Tuju said during a meeting with IGAD Executive Secretary Attalla Hamad Bashir in Nairobi.

The duo supported IGAD commitment of deploying peacekeepers in Somalia, despite rejection by powerful warlords and hard-line Islamic leaders.

"The IGAD member states are willing to send the IGASOM (IGAD support mission to Somalia) but we can't do it with embargo in place. What we are saying is that no country should resort to unilateral actions that contradict the Africa Union, IGAD, and the UN positions," said Bashir.

He called for the international community to support the transitional government, which has failed to exert control over the warlords-infested country.

Since he was elected president of Somalia in October 2004, Abdillahi Yusuf Ahmed has repeatedly called for the lifting of the embargo to enable his powerless government to exert control across the country, home to up to 10 million people.

But the United States, UN chief Kofi Annan, donor nations and conflict resolution groups, have all warned that lifting the embargo could spark a fresh round of bloodletting in Somalia.

Somalia has been working with the regional body, the AU and the international community in an effort to develop a National Security and Stabilization Plan to bring peace to the impoverished country.

The war-plagued nation has been torn by factional fighting ever since the collapse of former president Muhammad Siyad Barre's regime 15 years ago. Despite the current violence in the capital, Tuju and Bashir said there were some signs of hope towards peace, but they emphasized that this couldn't be imposed from outside.

Source: Xinhua,

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