Africa Programme

Transcript

Securing Stability in
Somalia: AMISOMs
Evolving Role and Regional
Implications
Dr Maman Sidikou
Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia and
Head, African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)

Chair: Dr Alex Vines OBE

Research Director, Area Studies and International Law; Head, Africa Programme, Chatham House

1 April 2015

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2 Securing Stability in Somalia: AMISOMs Evolving Role and Regional Implications

Dr Maman Sidikou
Thank you for this opportunity to exchange views on Somalia with you today, particularly around the
topic: Securing Stability in Somalia, AMISOMs evolving role and regional implications.
It is an open secret that, together with our Somali colleagues in the Somali National Army, and with the
support of the international community, we have increasingly created a relatively secure country out of a
very difficult situation. We have also contributed by creating an enabling environment to facilitate
political development in the country.
Having said this, the challenge is about building on these gains so that we can strengthen the foundations
for sustainable peace and stability in Somalia. The challenges are many but I will focus on three critical
ones and then I will discuss how AMISOM is adapting to the changing landscape, so we can contribute to
addressing these challenges.
Let me underline here and now that AMISOM cannot remain in Somalia indefinitely.
We have an exit strategy and this is hinged on supporting our Somali brothers and sisters to assume
primary responsibility for their country, their present and their future. This is the first and most
important issue.
Assuming primary responsibility for their present and their future requires that they can guarantee the
safety and security of the citizenry so that the Somali people can live in a safe and secure country.
This responsibility is a shared one, between the government and the people.
On the part of the government, let me emphasize the critical need for a clear policy direction regarding
the form and shape of security institutions required for Somalia in this time of her history.
Do we need a military that is reminiscent of the past?
Do we need a military that responds to Somalias present and can meet the envisaged challenges of the
future?
What about the regional implications?
I do not have a single, simple answer.
Several conferences, including the most recent one held last August here in London, have been held to
discuss this matter.
Many plans have come out of these conferences. Many partners continue to provide basic and specialist
training as well as equipment and salaries for the Somali security institutions.
But the answer is: until Somalis determine that it is for them to build, equip and maintain a wellmotivated and a truly national army and police whose allegiance is to country and not to any particular
clan or region, then we will continue to struggle to secure Somalias stability.
Again having said that, I would like to use this forum to reiterate the African Unions appreciation to all
those partners who continue to support the Federal Government of Somalia [FGS] in standing up a
reliable national army and police, with effective command and control.

3 Securing Stability in Somalia: AMISOMs Evolving Role and Regional Implications

As we all know, these two institutions are in desperate need of fresh blood, perhaps educated and detribalized Somalis both from within the country and from the diaspora.
This is one part of the responsibility that every young Somali woman and man listening to me this evening
has would you consider contributing in one way or another, including signing up for service and
utilizing your education, training, expertise and skills in a new Somali National Army or police?
It is about Somalias future and that future belongs to the Somali youth.
On our part, the international community must necessarily, at this point in time, step up to the occasion
and inject much needed resources for infrastructural developments (barracks, offices, hospitals, training
schools) and immediate sustenance for the new crop of the Somali National Army and police.
Ladies and gentlemen, the second challenge is for Somalis to rise above those factors that tend to divide
them and to resolve their differences through dialogue, rather than by the use of force.
The ongoing political processes, including the formation of interim regional administrations for the
envisaged federal states, the adoption of a federal constitution and the conduct of elections by October
2016 will test both the resolve and determination of the Somali political class to chart a new political path
for the country.
On the 2016 elections, the Somali political leadership continues to reiterate its commitment to the
holding of elections in 2016 and the recent passing of the necessary electoral legislations as well as the
formation of political parties are encouraging.
The challenge however remains the form and shape that the elections will take.
While we are all looking forward to the outcomes of the forthcoming Electoral Assessment Mission, we
are observing with keen interest the activities of political groups in the country which might signal a move
towards an electoral contest based on political party, rather than clan or regional affiliations, in 2016.
Ladies and gentlemen, the process leading up to the elections in 2016 (including how inclusive they are),
the outcome of the process and most importantly, the manner in which all actors, including the region,
respond to the outcomes may determine the depth and strength of what will become the foundations for a
new Somalia, a country that should not only be at peace with itself but with its neighbours in particular
and the larger global community.
Clearly, it is important for Somalia to emerge out of this process as a more secure country with growing
national state institutions, especially a national army and police that should be preparing to take full
responsibility from AMISOM.
A political leadership that has a strong commitment to, and respect for, the rule of law and its institutions
can also begin to emerge and this is critical.
Like I have observed in other forums, Somalia, the region and indeed the world cannot afford to herald in
a new Somalia without the necessary state security institutions that can effectively tackle any domestic
threats which will invariably impact on its neighbours.
Given the regional dynamics and regional implications at stake, certainly one can imagine Somalias
neighbours intervening to both safeguard their individual and national security interests.

4 Securing Stability in Somalia: AMISOMs Evolving Role and Regional Implications

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me now talk about how AMISOM is adapting to the evolving landscape in
Somalia especially in this stabilization and early recovery phase in our mandate implementation.
At the start of this year, following consultations with the FGS, we developed a new set of priorities which
AMISOM is now dedicating our resources to supporting the government.
These priority areas include:

Providing support to the ongoing political processes that will lead to the elections in 2016;
Providing support to efforts at reforming the security sector with a view to rebuilding the Somali
National Army and Police;
Providing support to the government in stabilization and early recovery actions in the areas
liberated from Al Shabaab;
Facilitating access to the areas recovered from Al Shabaab with a view to enabling the
humanitarian actors [to] reach these places with much needed assistance whilst also enabling the
communities engage in socio-economic activities;
Ensuring that human rights and gender considerations are mainstreamed in all our work.

We have therefore reorganized the mission along thematic working groups to realise each of those
priorities with resources from the civilian, police and military components of AMISOM.
In the meantime, in the next couple of weeks, the United Nations and the African Union will be fielding a
joint benchmarking mission to determine the timelines for the deployment of a United Nations
peacekeeping operation in Somalia.
It is our expectation that the exercise will provide a proper assessment of AMISOM and the Somali
national defence and security institutions so that we can make proposals to the AU Peace and Security
Council and the UN Security Council on the required measures to:

Reconfigure AMISOM with a view to optimizing the mission through the deployment of specialist
and expert resources (formed police units, correctional services personnel, military engineers,
uniformed medics, civil military coordination officers, etc.) and enablers (intelligence,
psychological operations, public information);
Providing enhanced support to the Somali National Army and Somali Police Force;
Further deployment of civilian personnel in the sectors to support stabilization and early recovery
efforts;
Ensuring a more efficient delivery of an enhanced logistical support to AMISOM by UNSOA [UN
Support Office for AMISOM], and this requires a more creative mechanism, including a review of
the applicable Security Council and General Assembly legislative and administrative guidelines
which respond to the specific context of Somalia and the operational realities of AMISOM.

The third and last factor, in my humble opinion, in ensuring the stability of security in Somalia is the most
important one.
It is the most important one because it is ultimately about the Somali person.
We urgently need to provide the necessary support to the populations in the areas we have recovered from
Al Shabaab.

5 Securing Stability in Somalia: AMISOMs Evolving Role and Regional Implications

The government needs our support to facilitate grassroots reconciliation, establish local security, rule of
law and governance mechanisms in place of those put in place by Al Shabaab and to provide social welfare
services especially basic healthcare, water and education.
I will not dwell a lot on this because what our Somali brothers and sisters in these recovered areas deserve
are just the normal, basic human needs which we, the Somali government, AMISOM and the
international community, have an obligation to provide to them if we are to demonstrate, tangibly, the
utility of governance rather than the tyranny of Al Shabaab.
Let me stop here because this is not about me reading speeches, but about interacting. Thank you for your
attention.