UNITED NATIONS: In a bid to strengthen Somalia’s security forces to fight against al Qaeda-linked militants, the United States Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday agreed to lift a 21-year-old arms embargo on Somalia’s government for one year, allowing the country to buy light weapons.
However, the ban on surface-to-air missiles, larger-caliber guns, howitzers, cannons and mortars, anti-tank guided weapons, mines and night vision weapon sights would remain intact.
The 15-member Security Council imposed the embargo in 1992 to cut the flow of arms to feuding warlords, who a year earlier ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged Somalia into civil war.
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