UNITED NATIONS, — The UN Security Council is meeting behind closed doors on the situation in Somalia and is expected to adopt a non-binding presidential statement on Somalia on Friday, a UN spokesperson said here.Michele Montas, the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, told a news briefing that the 15-nation Council is expected to hold an open meeting after their closed consultations to adopt the statement.However, Montas did not give further details on the statement.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday voiced deep concern over the mounting death toll in Somalia amid some of the fiercest armed clashes the Horn of Africa country has experienced this year, sparking a new wave of displacement. Al-Shabab Terrorist Rebel attacks in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, have killed at least 135 people and wounded more than 400, sending more than 34,000 more fleeing the heavy fighting that erupted last week between forces loyal to the embattled Transitional Federal Government (TFT)and opposition groups, according to UNHCR.
The Security Council has been long under pressure from African states to send a UN force to Somalia, but it has repeatedly delayed deciding and is due to consider the matter again by June 1. Somalia has been a byword for anarchy since a dictatorship was overthrown in 1991. Currently, large parts of south and central Somalia are under the control of hardline al Shabaab insurgents and allied armed fighters.
U.N. says time not right for Somalia peacekeeping
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