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Somali leaders should continue search for inclusive government - Annan

3 November – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged Somali leaders to continue their yearlong search for agreement on a viable and inclusive national government.

In his latest report to the UN Security Council on developments in the Horn of Africa country, Mr. Annan says, "Somali leaders face the historic challenge of bridging their differences in order to reach agreement on a viable government. I urge them to continue their dialogue to ensure an inclusive solution that they can all support and implement in good faith."

While welcoming the efforts of those leaders who have secured their regions well enough to allow humanitarian and development work by the UN and its partners, he says, "The international community is becoming increasingly impatient with the continued conflict and violence in Somalia."

The civil strife started in earnest in 1988.

Mr. Annan hailed the decision of the Security Council's Sanctions Committee on Somalia to visit the country in the coming weeks to strengthen the arms embargo. In mid-August the re-constituted four-member Panel of Experts reported that it was focusing its work of identifying those who broke the embargo on the most recent violations "by land, air and sea."

The sanctions committee's visit to Somalia was delayed but is now scheduled to take place from 11 to 21 November.

Mr. Annan's Representative for Somalia, Winston Tubman, and his Special Adviser for Africa, Mohamed Sahnoun, have both been active in encouraging the Somali national reconciliation process, taking place under the auspice of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and chaired by Kenya, he says.

Meanwhile, the report lists several incidents of violence in the capital Mogadishu, including the rape of children and the dismemberment of a young woman, which "have shocked even the hardened citizens of the city."

"Mounting criminality in Mogadishu included frequent abductions, carjackings and civilian deaths," the report says, while inter-clan fighting, often using landmines, in Baidoa has closed the town to outsiders for 14 months and killed many people.

South of Gaalkacyo, "clan conflict, banditry and the weakness of most local administrations combine to make the management of security a significant challenge for humanitarian staff," it says.