Somalia and Ethiopia say they will work together to protect each other’s territories, including requesting the UN Security Council to lift an age-old arms embargo on Mogadishu.
At the end of his two-day state visit to Addis Ababa, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed a ten-point declaration with his host, Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed, “to nurture and strengthen the longstanding bilateral ties and relationships between the two countries and peoples based on respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of both countries,” the communiqué indicated.
And the priority will be to ask for Somalia to regain its power to purchase weapons and stabilise its security forces.
“The leaders call upon the UNSC (United Nations Security Council) to consider the request of the Federal Governments of Somalia for the lifting of the arms embargo imposed on the country for more than 30 years, to ensure that Somalia is sufficiently equipped to effectively address the security threat posed by the Al Shabaab terrorist group,” the communiqué added.
Somalia has been banned from direct purchasing of weapons, an old embargo imposed in the early 1990s to stop warlords from overrunning the country during the civil war. But the ban has been extended continually in the past, varied to target al-Shabaab militants. Today, Somalia can only purchase certain weapons, and with permission from the sanctions committee of the UNSC.
Donors and other countries helping Somalia rebuild the army can donate weapons too, but as long as the Council is notified.