Fifteen years after the collapse of its central government in 1991, lawlessness and suffering still reign in many parts of Somalia. Peacekeepers were withdrawn amid the country’s descent into famine and chaos, but the United Nations has continued to provide aid to the Somali people and to search along with others for a political solution that could finally reconcile this shattered nation in the Horn of Africa.

The Department of Political Affairs provides support and political guidance to the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), established in Nairobi in 1995, to help the Secretary-General advance peace and reconciliation through its contacts with Somali leaders and  civic organizations, and to support the peace initiatives carried out by Member States and regional organizations. The Office is headed since May 2005 by François Lonseny Fall, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia. UNPOS provides good offices, helps to coordinate international political support and financial assistance to peace and reconciliation efforts, and monitors and reports on developments on the ground.

UNPOS provided intensive support during 2002-2004 to the Somali National Reconciliation Conference held in Nairobi under the auspices of the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and worked with international partners to help Somali leaders agree on a transitional administration. The Conference involved more of Somali’s factions than any previous attempts at peace. It had by early 2005 produced a broad-based Transitional Federal Government (TFG) which moved back to the country in mid-2005 from its temporary base in Nairobi, albeit amid continuing violence and distrust between factions and ongoing violations of the arms embargo imposed in 1992 by the U.N. Security Council.

During 2006, the seizure of Mogadishu and other areas of the country by the Union of Islamic Courts fundamentally altered the landscape in Somalia, posing a serious threat to the transitional federal institutions. The SRSG has worked along with other international partners including IGAD and the League of Arab States to encourage dialogue between the parties aimed at arriving at peaceful understandings, and to urge neighboring countries to avoid actions that could further inflame the situation within Somalia and the broader region.