Photo taken on Oct. 13, 2015 shows a soldier guarding the wreckage of a crashed cargo plane on the outskirt of Mogadishu, Somalia, Oct. 13, 2015. A cargo plane carrying African Union supplies crash landed in Somali capital Mogadishu outskirts on Monday, according to witnesses. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse)
MOGADISHU, May 25 (Xinhua) -- A joint African Union, UN and Somalia assessment team kicked off a meeting in Mogadishu on Wednesday to discuss transition plan following a planned exit of the AU forces.
The Special Representative of the AU Commission Chairperson (SRCC) for Somalia, Francisco Madeira said the meeting will review the current security situation against the recently developed National Security Architecture; and recommend steps to a handover of the security responsibility, to the Somali National Security Forces (SNSF).
"There is urgency for the Somali National Security Forces to take over. We have to start with what is realistically possible to do; and in how much time can that be done," said Madeira in a statement issued in Mogadishu.
He said the National Security Architecture is a very important document, which they want it to work. "We don't want it to remain on paper, good ideas; good intentions. It is no longer about intentions, it is about results," Madeira said.
The assessment team comprising of senior officials from the Somalia government, the AU Peace and Security Division, the UN headquarters, the UN Office to the AU, other key donors and stakeholders, have the challenging task of developing a workable framework that guarantees a seamless transition of security responsibilities from AMISOM to the Somali National Army.
"We have a major task, which is to help Somalia to build rapidly and I emphasize rapidly, its national security forces and security institutions, based on the National Security Architecture, both at the federal level and at the federal member states level," said Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (DSRSG) for Somalia, Raisedon Zenenga.
"That is a major task for all of us, which we have to accomplish in less than four years beginning now," Zenenga added.
The review team will identify immediate needs that will hasten the transfer of the country's national defence, to the national security agencies.
Police Units of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) stand in position after concluding training in the Somali capital Mogadishu Thursday May 30, 2013. The AMISOM police force, part of the nearly-20,000-member AU peacekeeping mission, are expected to be deployed along with local police. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse)
Hussein Moalim Mohamud Sheikh Ali, Somalia's National Security Advisor expressed the need for AMISOM's continued stay in Somalia, until the national forces are certified capable of managing the country's security on their own.
"We see these 10 years (that AMISOM has been in Somalia), not as you overstaying.
"But that you have invested so much, you have sacrificed so much, and the need that you came for in Somalia is still there. Today, the discussion is starting on how to remove that need," Ali said.
Recommendations made by the review team will be presented to relevant African Union and United Nations organs for approval; and will inform the renewal of AMISOM's mandate, due in July 2017.
The African Union has set October 2018 as the commencement of the drawdown of troops from Somalia, an exercise expected to end by 2020.
