UN lifts arms embargo on Somalia after 31 years

The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Friday voted to lift an arms embargo on Somalia government forces, ending over three decades of restrictions that had prevented the country from upgrading its military with freely purchased new weaponry.

The council slapped Somalia with the embargo in 1992 to cut the flow of weapons to conflicting warlords, who had ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the country into civil war.

However, the 15-member body voted 14-1 during a sitting in New York, to lift the embargo but retained restrictions on arms trade or supplies to members of the terrorist group Al Shabaab.

France reportedly abstained from the vote.

The lift means the federal government is permitted to order and purchase weapons from all legal merchants in the world.

But it will have to submit a list of the weapons to the UN Sanctions Committee on Somalia for verifications.

The resolution lifting the arms embargo spells out “for the avoidance of doubt, that there is no arms embargo on the Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia,” Reuters reported, quoting the council.

Hailing the move, Somalia’s Ambassador to the U.N., Abubar Dahir Osman said: “The lifting of the arms embargo enables us to confront security threats.”

“It also allows us to bolster the capacity of the Somali security forces by accessing lethal arms and equipment to adequately safeguard our citizens and our nation.”

Al Shabaab has been waging a brutal insurgency against the Somali government since 2006 to try to establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.