Statement delivered by Ambassador Byrne Nason at UNSC Briefing on Somalia
Statement
22 February 2021
At the outset I wanted to express our sincere sympathy to Italy following the violent incident in the DRC which claimed three lives including the life of the Ambassador of Italy. We unreservedly condemn the perpetrators of this brutal attack on a UN convoy and express sincere sympathy to our colleagues.
We have heard today that Somalia stands at a critical juncture. We had hoped that at today’s meeting, we would have been able to congratulate Somalia on successful elections. Instead, the Constitutional term of the President of Somalia has ended without agreement on an inclusive political arrangement for an electoral process, which would ensure a peaceful political transition. We regret this. We are further disappointed that, despite recent commitments made on 9 February 2021, the leaders of the Federal Government of Somalia and Federal Member States have yet to come together to resolve the outstanding electoral implementation issues.