{"id":24021,"date":"2016-03-20T02:03:38","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T02:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/leaders-agree-au-needs-financial-boost-ahead-of\/"},"modified":"2016-03-20T02:03:27","modified_gmt":"2016-03-20T02:03:27","slug":"leaders-agree-au-needs-financial-boost-ahead-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/leaders-agree-au-needs-financial-boost-ahead-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders agree AU needs financial boost ahead of elections in Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The African Union has asked the United Nations to prioritise the plea for financial back-up to countries contributing soldiers to Somalia.}<\/p>\n

At a meeting with Michael Keating, the Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Smail Chergui said the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) needed the financial boost ahead of the country\u2019s elections in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommissioner Chergui reiterated the importance of implementing the recent decisions made during the troop-contributing countries summit, especially in the areas of command and control, deployment of additional enablers, resource mobilisation and better coordination amongst partners in their support to Somalia,\u201d the AU said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commissioner and the special representative of the UN secretary-general stressed the importance of a comprehensive and more deliberate approach in the support of Somalia to develop a competent security sector as part of efforts to promote sustainable peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

AU\u2019s language was in the usual diplomatic tone, arguing the need to have a strong Amisom force as the Somali army was being improved to guard the county\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n

But Chergui, the Algerian diplomat charged with AU\u2019s peace and security operations, was more direct in comments on his Twitter page.<\/p>\n

\u201cAU needs to come up with a clear roadmap to secure 25 per cent financing of its peace and security operations. The UN is expected to provide the remaining 75 per cent from assessed contributions,\u201d Mr Chergui wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, best way to resolve the challenge of funding AU peace operations is to silence the guns in Africa,\u201d he added in another comment.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s meeting was mainly about Somalia\u2019s stabilising plan ahead of the elections the international community sees as a game-changer for the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation. <\/p>\n

Mr Keating is also the head of the UN Assistance Office to Somalia.<\/p>\n

DJIBOUTI MEETING<\/p>\n

This meeting came only two weeks after troop-contributing countries: Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Nigeria (police), Sierra Leone and Burundi met with Somali government officials in Djibouti where they stressed the \u201cneed for an affective Amisom Command and Control in order to achieve synergy\u201d against Al-Shabaab terrorists.<\/p>\n

But the countries also asked for more financing to plug the reduced European Union budget for the 22,000 troops operating in Somalia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Summit notes with serious concern the decision by the EU to reduce financial support to Amisom troop allowance by 20 per cent, especially during this critical phase of Amisom operations and call upon the UN to\u2026bridge this financial gap,\u201d the leaders said in a communique.<\/p>\n

With Al-Shabaab launching attacks on Amisom soldiers frequently, it means Kenya and other troop-contributing countries need a stable budget to prop up the Somali government, especially as the election date approaches.<\/p>\n

However, the two diplomats agreed that a stable Somali national army would be the ultimate solution to the country\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n

Somalia plunged into conflict in 1991 following the overthrow of Mohammed Siad Barre who had been in power for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

There have been various attempts to bring stability to the country though almost all have failed.<\/p>\n

The emergence of Al-Shabaab, a jihadist group, a few years ago has complicated efforts to bring peace to Somalia.<\/p>\n

The group has attacked peacekeepers from Burundi, Uganda and Kenya.<\/p>\n

It is believed to control large swathes of land, especially in the south of the country. <\/p>\n

\"Heads<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The African Union has asked the United Nations to prioritise the plea for financial back-up to countries contributing soldiers to Somalia.} At a meeting with Michael Keating, the Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Smail Chergui said the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) needed the financial boost ahead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24021"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24021"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}