The United Nations Sanctions Committee Chairman for Eritrea and Somalia – Kairat Umarov said that evidence has not been found to support the Eritrean government’s relationships with the Somalia-based terrorist group – Al Shabab.
The Kazakh diplomat, citing a quarterly report by the Sanctions Monitoring Group on the two counties, expressed his statement at his presentation to the security council on 13th April 2017.
Mr. Umarov indicated that he would like to visit Eritrea. Although many member countries supported the proposal by the chairman, the US and Great Britain oppose the idea or any other visits by the Monitoring Group citing aggression and lack of interest by the Eritrean government to cooperate in the efforts to secure peace and stability in the area.
Representatives of Ethiopia and Djibouti, on their end, expressed their concern over the Eritrean government. The Eritrean government, on the other hand, urged the Security Council to push Ethiopia to pull its military forces from its sovereign territories.
Mr. Umarov underscored the Monitoring Group’s findings on where the 25, 000 weapons (which have been confiscated) came from and where they were heading to and said that peace keeping forces need to be deployed in the area.
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