Kenyan navy in Somalia is not part of AMISOM, UK ambassador says
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New York (RBC) The Kenyan navy in Somalia’s Jubba region is not part of the UN-assisted AMISOM mission, UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mark Lyall Grant told the Inner City Press.
After pointing out that the Kenyan navy is not part of the UN-assisted AMISOM mission, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky finally pointed back to a three week old statement by the UN’s humanitarian Mark Bowden.
But given the UN’s role in funding AMISOM, with which the Kenyan naval shelling is clearly coordinated, doesn’t the UN have a greater role?
On Tuesday morning Inner City Press asked UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant about the shelling, after he described the just-passed Security Council resolution and upcoming summit meeting at the UN.
Lyall Grant said the Kenya’s ground troops are part of AMISOM, but the “Kenyan navy assets” are not. He said he would not speak to the timetable for re-taking Kismayo from Al Shabab, which he called “a longstanding objective that will be pursued.”
Inner City Press asked, since the Kenyan navy is clearly coordinating with the Council authorized (and UN funded) AMISOM, what safeguards are in place?
Lyall Grant said the issue goes beyond Somalia, whenever regional organizations are authorized by the Council in this way.
He said while less direct than with UN blue helmets (or berets), AMISOM is still expected to comply with human rights, and he said “we have not reasons to believe that they are not doing so.”
But what about the Kenyan Navy and its shelling?
There was previously a dispute in the Security Council about whether to fund the Kenyan naval component, or at least its maintenance. Did declining to provide that funding leave this de facto component outside any human rights safeguards?
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Source: Innercity Press
[...] shelling Kismayo in the preceding days. But the warships were not part of Amisom, according to the UK Permanent Representative to the UN Mark Lyall [...]