U.N. Warns of ‘Systematic’ Somali Arms Diversion

{{A confidential U.N. monitors’ report warns of “systematic abuses” by Somalia’s government, which the monitors say has allowed the diversion of weapons that Somali authorities purchased after the U.N. Security Council eased an arms embargo on Mogadishu last year.}}

Some of the arms believed to have been diverted were earmarked for a leader of the al Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group al Shabaab, the monitors said in their report.

In its 14-page report to the Security Council’s sanctions committee, the U.N. Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group recommends either restoring the full arms embargo or at least tightening notification and reporting requirements related to arms deliveries.

“The Monitoring Group has identified a number of issues and concerns over current management of weapons and ammunition stockpiles by the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), which point to high-level and systematic abuses in weapons and ammunition management and distribution,” the report said.

The panel of independent experts tracks compliance with the U.N. Somalia-Eritrea sanctions regime.

The 15-nation council’s decision to ease Somalia’s decades-old arms embargo last March was a controversial one, although Washington supported the Somali government’s appeals for restrictions to be relaxed to enable it to better arm its security forces to fight al Shabaab.

The new report details difficulties the monitors have had in getting access to weapons stockpiles in Somalia and information about its growing arsenal.

It says the government cancelled several inspections of armories that the monitors and U.N. officials had planned to undertake.

{reuters}