New York - Foreign fighters have increased their presence in
Somalia, threatening efforts by the transitional government to work
out a political settlement with the various warring groups, the
United Nations Security Council was told Thursday.
The government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is also faced with
problems from the locally armed group Al Shabaab, which this year has
intensified a strategy of coercion and intimidation of the
population, and targeted assassination of clan leaders and government
officials, said UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs B
Lynn Pascoe.
'While there have been some solid successes in consolidating the
government, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) continues to
face intense pressure from insurgent forces - backed by foreign
fighters - seeking to seize power,' Pascoe said in updating the
situation in the Horn of Africa nation.
US Ambassador Susan Rice and other council members also warned of
the increasing number of non-Somali fighters entering the country.
Rice said the United States has provided 149 million dollars in
humanitarian assistance to Somalia this year because of the increase
in internally displaced Somalis and flow of Somali refugees into
neighbouring countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen.
The UN said there are now 1.3 million Somalis displaced by the
fighting.
'The international community must stand united in its support of
the TFG,' Rice said. 'If the extremists are successful, we can lose
yet another generation of Somalis to war, diseases and desperate
poverty.'
The UN undersecretary general for field support, Susana Malcorra,
told the council that the African Mission in Somalia needs more
assistance to pursue its task of building security and stability in
that country.
The mission, which works closely with the African Union, is
currently composed of 4,274 troops from Uganda and Burundi and needs
to be strengthened to its authorized ceiling of 8,000 troops.
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