UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- The United Nations authorized the African Union to establish a Somalia mission to facilitate reconciliation and delivery of humanitarian aid.
The war-ravaged country has not had a functioning government for more than 15 years.
The U.N. Security Council Tuesday unanimously established an operation, to be known as the Africa Mission in Somalia, to support reconciliation by assisting with the free movement, safe passage and protection of all those involved with the process.
The new mission, under the U.N. Charter's Chapter VII allowing for enforcement measures, overrides a previous council-authorized operation led by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. The regional body had a more limited mandate.
The mission will protect Somalia's transitional federal institutions to help them carry out their functions of government as well as security for key infrastructure.
In addition, the mission will assist with carrying out a national security and stabilization plan, particularly regarding re-establishment and training of all-inclusive Somali security forces.
It will also help foster necessary security conditions for the providing humanitarian assistance desperately needed in Somalia, which has been hit by the twin scourges of conflict and natural disasters.
In unanimously adopting the resolution, the council said there was a "need for broad-based and representative institutions reached through an all-inclusive political process in Somalia, as envisaged in the Transitional Federal Charter, in order to consolidate stability, peace and reconciliation in the country and ensure that international assistance is as effective as possible."
