UNITED NATIONS, February 4 (Sputnik) – The UN envoy to Somalia on Wednesday presented to the United Nations Security Council a dire picture of growing security threats to the East African nation, including dangerous inter-clan conflicts and al-Shabaab militant group.
“Security for Somali civilians must improve. Al-Shabaab is not the only threat they face… We need to recognize and respond to the continuing potential for local inter-clan disputes to lead conflict,” UN envoy Nicholas Kay said.
The Somalians have been living without an effective government since the overthrow of the Revolutionary Socialist Party in 1991. Authorities in Mogadishu control only the capital city and part of central Somalia. The rest of the country has been split up between self-governing clans.
29 December 2014, 22:44 GMT
Kay said that the government must build a “sustainable and inclusive state” and carry out policies at national and regional levels in order for Somalians to have a lasting peace.
For the past seven years, the Mogadishu government has been under assault by the al-Shabaab Islamist group, which wants to topple the UN-backed government and create an Islamic state on the controlled territories.
