Kenya pushes for UN aid in Shabaab operation
Photo/FILE
Security Council members vote during a UN Security Council at the headquarters in New York. UN Ambassador Macharia Kamau is urging the council to assist in deployment of African Union (Amisom) troops to areas dominated by the al-Shabaab.
Kenya wants the United Nations Security Council to help consolidate and extend the operation against the al-Shabaab in southern Somalia.
UN Ambassador Macharia Kamau urged the council to assist in deployment of African Union (Amisom) troops to areas dominated by the al-Shabaab.
He added that Kenya was still pushing for Security Council members to initiate a naval blockade of Kismayu, the port through which the insurgents derive most of their revenue.
According to the envoy, Kenya's military operation in southern Somalia is “more than 50 percent complete and has met its primary objective of creating a buffer zone to secure the border of Kenya.”
“We are trying to consolidate these gains and make sure there is no re-infiltration of border regions by armed elements,” he said.
He cautioned, however, that “the war is still on and the nerve centre of Shabaab in Kismayu still stands.”
A UN-backed dispatch of Amisom troops into “liberated” parts of southern Somalia would be a welcome step, he added.
The possibility of a blockade of Kismayu remains “very much alive,” he said.
