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Department of Political Affairs

Peacemaker

Somalia

Special-Representative Mahiga in Somalia

The United Nations efforts to achieve peace, reconciliation and stability in Somalia after nearly two decades of lawlessness and conflict are led and coordinated by the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), a field operation of the Department of Political Affairs.

Stepping up the UN’s political support to the Somali transition, UNPOS relocated to Mogadishu from Nairobi, Kenya, in January 2012. The relocation demonstrates the strong commitment of the UN to work alongside the Somali people and their leaders to build peace, political stability and a hopeful future.

UNPOS was first established in 1995 and operates under a mandate from the United Nations Security Council. Under the leadership of the Special Representative of the Secretary General, Augustine P. Mahiga, UNPOS is playing an important role in furthering an inclusive peace process and in mobilizing assistance for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. UNPOS also works to promote the rule of law inside Somalia, which is essential to stopping piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia.

UNPOS has supported various initiatives aimed at promoting peace and national reconciliation in Somalia, including efforts by the Government of Djibouti that led to the formation of the Transitional National Government of Somalia in 2000. From 2002 to 2004, UNPOS supported the Somali National Reconciliation Conference under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, resulting in the formation of the Transitional Federal Government. After joining ranks with the former Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia in late 2008, under the Djibouti Agreement, the Transitional Federal Government chose a new leadership and went back to Somalia in February 2009. The mandate of the Transitional Federal Government ended with the election of a new President on 10 September 2012. This followed the adoption by the National Constituent Assembly, on 1 August, of a Provisional Constitution and the subsequent selection of Members of the new Federal Parliament of Somalia.

The UN’s strategic objective in Somalia is to consolidate the yet fragile peace process, including by assisting the Transitional Federal Government in broadening its support and establishing dialogue with opposition forces, and by supporting the strengthening of the Transitional Federal Institutions. The UN-brokered Djibouti Peace Agreement, signed between the Transitional Federal Government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia in August 2008, was a major step forward in the peace process. The agreement led to the election in January 2009 of Mr. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chairman of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, as President of Somalia.

The signing of the UN-facilitated Kampala Accord in 2011 between the President of Somalia, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and the Speaker of Parliament, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, ended five months of political deadlock and will help define the end of the current transitional period.

In August 2012, the new Somali Federal Parliament was inaugurated in Mogadishu, with some 215 of a total of 275 Members of Parliament sworn in, comfortably passing the benchmark of 185 which allows for the New Federal Parliament to convene with a functioning majority. This was followed in September with Somali Parliamentarians selecting Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a former political activist and founder of Somalia’s first political party "Peace and Development Party, as the country’s new President. Mr. Abdi Farah Shirdon “Saacid” was endorsed as the new Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Somalia and a new ten member cabinet was announced thereafter.

To date some 40 international staff members of UNPOS are currently stationed in Mogadishu, on permanent deployment. Additional personnel will deploy incrementally, as and when accommodation and other facilities become available.

With a new Government now in place, UNPOS has consulted regional and international partners, including the UN family, as part of a strategic review of its mission, which is aimed at determining the form of the future presence of the UN in Somalia.

Meanwhile, UNPOS is working closely with the Federal Government of Somalia and its partners towards the implementation of the Government’s ‘Six Pillar Policy’.