[Published: Saturday January 15 2011]
 Ban warns on global terrorism in Horn of Africa
New York, 15 Jan – (ANA) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling on the international community to provide urgent military and other support to Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to stop “foreign fighters and other spoilers” turning the region into the next stronghold of international terrorism.
“Security remains the single most critical challenge confronting the
transitional federal institutions,” Ban writes in his latest report
to the Security Council on a country torn apart by 20 years of factional
fighting.
The TFG in Mogadishu, the capital, has been under attack from Al-Shabaab and
other Islamist militants controlling the south and hundreds of thousands of
civilians have been driven from their homes by the conflict.
“The presence of foreign extremist fighters in Somalia is a constant reminder of
the high risk that the Horn of Africa is rapidly becoming the next front in
global efforts against international terrorism,” he adds, calling for urgent
military, financial, logistical and other support to the TFG and regional
organizations that are aiding it, including the African Union (AU), which has
deployed a UN-backed peacekeeping force in Somalia, known as AMISOM. (ANA)
FA/ANA/15 January 2011-------- |