(edited for clarity)

SPEAKERS

• Catriona Laing, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM)
• Anita Kiki Gbeho, UN Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Somalia (UNSOM)
• Aisa Kacyira, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the UN Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS)
• George Conway, UN Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia

CATRIONA LAING: Well, good morning, everybody.

It is a great pleasure to be joined by you this morning on the day after UN Day. And you have had introductions from my colleagues, from the top team here in Somalia. It is a great pleasure that we are all here together because it is not always that easy to get everyone in the same place. So, it is great to be with my colleagues today.

So just to set the scene, yesterday was United Nations Day, and it was the 78th anniversary of the day in 1945 when the UN Charter entered into force. And it is an important anniversary, and it is an occasion to recommit with hope and determination to build a better world for all of our aspirations.

And as you will all be aware, there are many, many challenges in the world at the moment. Horrible conflict in Ukraine, we have had the recent horrible situation in Israel and Palestine, numerous challenges on the continent of Africa and some of the challenges we face in Somalia. But the United Nations stands there ready to support in all these challenges.

We have been here in Somalia pre-independence. We have been here through some of the very tough times that Somalia has faced, and most recently, the Mission that I head, UNSOM, was established here in 2013.

Just to explain the set-up here. We have three Missions. We have my Mission, the political mission, my deputy is Kiki. You will hear from Aisa shortly about the UN Support Office for Somalia (UNSOS), which provides a lot of the logistics support both to ATMIS (the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia) and the UN, as well as the Government of Somalia. And George here heads the UN Country Team. So, it is between the four of us that the 3,000 people who are here for the UN in Somalia do their work to support the people of Somalia and, of course, the Government.

And one interesting thing to note is that this UN colour you see behind you, in blue – my nails as well! – is also the colour of your [Somali] flag. And that is not by coincidence, we are told that one of the reasons that the Somali flag chose that UN colour, is in recognition of the blue from the UN. So, the Somali flag and the UN flag share that colour, and I think that is a signal, a very strong signal, of the strong collaboration between the United Nations and Somalia.

So having set the scene a little bit, let me just say a few words on some of the issues that are top of our minds at the moment. But you’ll hear more from my three colleagues here. So firstly – and I have just come from New York, actually, where I gave my second update to the United Nations Security Council – is obviously the politics in Somalia, which you have all been tracking very, very closely.

And there’s been some progress. But frankly, there are some challenges. And with the National Consultative Council's specific proposals that were put out in May for a future electoral system in Somalia, these continue to dominate the political debate.

We are at quite a crucial moment where we need to agree collectively, under the leadership of the Government, [on] the way forward on elections, the kind of models that Somalia will pursue, the timeline, the sequencing of elections, and of course, very importantly, to try and bring Puntland back into this process because it will be very hard to complete not just elections, but the whole legislative framework and the process around developing a constitution for Somalia.

Without a constitution, a country will find it very hard to move forward. A constitution [is] essentially the ‘rules of the game’ which govern how a country is legislated, is governed. And Somalia really needs that constitution to be nailed down, as you know, it is still working on a draft constitution. So, there are some challenges in politics but there has been some progress.

Secondly, the situation in Laascaanood, which remains difficult and quite tense at the moment on the ground. The situation is relatively calm and people are starting to return home. But, obviously, the underlying drivers of this conflict, which resulted in a number of people killed, a number of prisoners taken, need still to be resolved.

And the United Nations has three messages and we engage with all key parties – President Deni, President Bihi, the recently established justice, the administration, the elders, the Dhulbahante clans, everybody, and of course, the Government.

The three messages are, number one, please make progress on the detainee exchange as a confidence-building measure. Secondly, it's important for everyone to commit to no more violence, and thirdly, of course, to find a peaceful solution to the disputed territory, which also means tackling some of the underlying drivers of the conflict. So that is on Laascaanood.

On the security front, sadly, as people will be aware, there was a recent request for a pause in the drawdown of ATMIS troops. And Aisa will say a little bit more about this. This is in recognition that the Government was facing challenges conducting the counter-offensive while also generating enough troops to take over the Forward Operating Bases that are held by ATMIS. This time is being used wisely to do some reconfiguration, some resetting, and to replan the military strategies. So, I think that that was welcomed and has been endorsed by the African Union Peace and Security Council, as well as in New York.

Looking ahead, the Government is in intensive preparations for a conference in December in New York, which will be looking at the post-2024 security architecture – what kind of support will continue to be needed from the various international partners, including the United Nations, and looking ahead to a world where ATMIS troops will have departed. So, there is intensive work going on to prepare for that conference.

Also on security, it’s important to note that reclaiming areas from Al-Shabaab is, of course, only step one, although a very important step. Those areas need to be stabilised, and people need to see the benefits of the Government returning to provide services for the people to enable their livelihoods to progress, to ensure justice is delivered –and that work is called stabilisation. The United Nations is providing the coordinating forum around stabilisation. It is very important to consolidate those security gains.

So that covers political and security issues.

I wanted to touch briefly on the set of issues around women, peace and security. And this is a really important area for the UN and for me personally as the first female SRSG (Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General) in Somalia, but luckily supported by two very, very able female colleagues. So, this is for the three of us and of course, for George, a really important area.

The UN works here through a programme which is a joint programme with the Government on women, peace and protection. And this is essentially about empowering women in their roles as peacemakers. We all know that women play a very important role in security, and there is no lasting peace on the ground unless women come in to support and help deal with those underlying tensions and drivers.

Secondly, on women, and I’ve heard directly myself from many of the female leaders here in Somalia – brave women who stand up for women's rights, who are doing pioneering work – and they urged me strongly and my team to continue to advocate with the Government, with Parliament and so on, on the importance of women having their rightful place at all the top tables, including crucially in politics, because women need to see other women in strong political leadership roles.

And I’m afraid this is an area which is always difficult in many countries I have worked in. The proposal here for a 30 per cent quota for women is very, very important to break this cycle, to get enough women at the table, for women to represent the views and rights of other women. So, let's all commit to work together to continue on ensuring that women have their rightful seat at the table.

And then just two final points. I wanted to mention human rights, and there are some encouraging bits of progress here, particularly on the legislative side. And I want to commend the Federal Government for approving recently the Disability Rights Bill and the Child's Rights Bill, and the Juvenile Justice Bill.

A very important issue in Somalia is the age of a child. We now have for the first time an age verification policy, which is the first formal procedure for age assessment in the country to confirm that a child is actually under 18. The UN has provided technical support to all these bills, so it is a good example of the kind of work that we do here at the UN. But there is more to be done. So, on the age of a child, for example, the next step is to harmonise all the legislation and policy around embedding formally that a child is under 18, and that affects things like child marriage, the age at which a child can legitimately join the military, and so on. So that is a really important next step.

And the second area where we are really focusing is around legislation to address sexual violence crimes. Somalia has signed up to many of the international human rights obligations here, but it needs to enshrine this in law. It is a really important part of protection for women.

And I know, for all of you as journalists, the Media Bill around protecting freedom of expression is hugely important. And this is an area we keep a very close watch on. We’ve done three reports on ensuring that the Government adheres to its obligations to ensure that all of you as journalists can do your jobs freely and report so that people understand what is going on and without any intimidation. So, rest assured, this is very much top of our agenda on human rights.

And then finally, just one more positive note there, for me to end on, is Somalia's work towards preparing for the completion of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. This is to enable Somalia to write off most of its debt. It is a very important milestone for Somalia. I am pleased to say that the final piece of the jigsaw was met recently, and Somalia should be moving to the completion point in December. This will enable Somalia to access much larger soft loans and grants, and that will be important for Somalia's economic development. So, investment, for example, in your coastline, your very important coastline, which will enable you to drive forward from an economic perspective.

Lots more to say, but I'm not going to cover it all. I want my colleagues also to come in. So, it is over to you Kiki next.

ANITA KIKI GBEHO: Thank you very much, SRSG. As the SRSG mentioned, my name is Kiki Gbeho, and I am her deputy on political affairs. So, when it comes to supporting the Government with the peacebuilding and state-building agenda, we work as a mission on four key areas: inclusive politics, rule of law, human rights, and security.

The Government has elaborated very clear priorities moving forward, and these priorities include the Constitutional Review Process, finalising the National Security Architecture, completing the judicial model and resolving disputes. And all these areas are directly related to the support work that we undertake as a mission. Whether it is through the good offices work of the SRSG, our convening role, advocacy, capacity-building or training, we support the implementation of the goals and priorities of Somalia.

We deliver concrete and visible support. You have heard the SRSG talk about some of our areas of work, but just to elaborate a little bit more, for example, when it comes to the judicial model, we supported the government to convene and hold discussions around what a final judicial model would look like under the Constitutional Review Process.

We also have been supporting the strengthening of police and community policing throughout Somalia. The SRSG talked about the Joint Programme on Women, Peace and Protection, something that is dear to us as leadership here in Somalia, particularly attaining the 30 per cent quota.

We have also worked very closely with the Government, with civil society, with our sister UN agencies on the Joint Justice and Corrections Programme. This has supported so far the provision of legal services to close to 18,000 beneficiaries in Somalia – the majority of these beneficiaries have been women. We have also supported the establishment of 16 alternative dispute resolution centres throughout this country and 13,000 cases have been resolved as a result.

We also have the Joint Programme on Human Rights. We are in the second phase of that programme right now, and are supporting Somalis to advance human rights through dialogue and capacity-building. The SRSG has talked about some of the bills that we have supported Government to put in place, including the Child Rights Bill and the Disability Rights Bill.

When it comes to inclusion, one of my personal favourites, and I'm not supposed to have a favourite, but it is one, is the work that we have been undertaking recently with the National Disability Agency. Over the last two years, we supported them to undertake a perception survey, so they can understand the issues that people with disabilities face in Somalia. When I was in school, I had a professor and he used to tell us: “If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.” If we do not understand the challenges that people with disabilities face, there will be no way we can support the Government to resolve these issues.

And maybe last but not least, in conclusion, and picking up from where the SRSG left off, I can think of no better time than the 78th birthday of the United Nations, an organisation which was founded to build peace, to recommit to Somalia's goals. That is, to agree a federated state of Somalia and to enshrine it, as you said, SRSG, in the constitution. Agreeing this constitution, the SRSG called it the ‘rule book’ will help Somalia reach its vision –a Somalia that is at peace with itself, and at peace with its neighbours.

I thank you. And now I hand over to George.

GEORGE CONWAY: Thank you very much, SRSG, Deputy SRSG, Head of UNSOS, and colleagues. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss with you today and to brief you on the work of the UN Country Team in support of the overall UN mandates for Somalia – humanitarian, development, human rights, peace and political mandates.

The UN Country Team in Somalia is comprised of, in addition to the Mission structures, of at least 20 agencies, funds and programmes. These include some of the big agencies like the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), as well as a number of smaller technical agencies like UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization), ILO (International Labour Organization) and others. I don't want to list them all, but they are familiar names to you. And they come together in the form of the UN Country Team to align against priorities agreed with the Government of Somalia to address key development challenges facing the country.

The Country Team does include both development and humanitarian partners, and many of the UN agencies are so-called double hatted – doing both humanitarian and development work. And frankly, in the past couple of years we have tilted to a quite robust humanitarian response because of the needs of the country.

Last year and at the beginning of this year, with the significant severe risk of a famine as a result of a drought that was the worst in 40 years, we scaled up our support to authorities at the national, state and local levels to prevent [Somalia] from sliding into a famine. At the height of the response, more than 6.3 million Somalis were receiving some form of assistance from the UN, whether it was food assistance or cash or support for nutrition and hygiene and water and sanitation, or other services. It was an important part of preventing the country from falling over the brink from a protracted drought into famine conditions.

Now the Gu rains, when they came, ameliorated the situation and food insecurity across the country has improved. But it’s still significant, and it is still a serious challenge. We estimate right now about four million Somalis are living at different levels of food security crisis. And that is a lot. That is a very high number. And 3.8 million Somalis are internally displaced across the country. That number itself increased by a million people over the course of the protracted drought.

So right now, today in addition to the baseline of humanitarian need in the country, we are very concerned about the impact of El Niño on the Deyr rainy season.

We have already in the past two weeks seen flash flooding happening in a number of cities throughout the country. We have seen river levels rising. We have been working for the past months with the Government at the federal level – with SODMA, the Somalia Disaster Management Agency – and as well as with the humanitarian affairs ministries at the state level, on preparedness measures and to try to reduce the impact as best we collectively can on the population. The estimates that we have right now are that the rains are likely to be the worst that we’ve seen in at least 20 years, with the most recent worst rains in 1997.

And again, the estimates indicate that perhaps 1.2 million Somalis could be impacted by flooding over the course of the next three months, and 1.6 million hectares of land inundated as a result. These are forecasts, but they are based on science, and we have already seen the impacts on cities and towns across the country start to materialise in practice, and impacting disproportionately on already-displaced communities, on IDP (internally displaced people) camps and host communities that were displaced as a result of previous crises in the country.

So, we are working, like I said, with the Government at different levels on preparedness. We’ve done a lot of work to help government, local governments and state governments identify evacuation areas, in high ground areas, provided maps and provided data. We are doing monitoring of river levels in support of the Government in order to give early warning notice to communities so that they can be informed if they have to move. And we are providing packages of early response support to those communities that are directly impacted in the areas of food or cash or hygiene or water or sanitation or the other areas that that we are focused on.

It's important to note that we have allocated significant resources to this response. Right now, we have $50 million allocated immediately towards the rapid response.

However, our humanitarian response plan for this year is underfunded. It sits at about 39 per cent funded, as of today. And that is compromising our ability to scale up the response as much as we would have preferred and we are appealing to donors to come in with their generous support to enable us to ensure that we're responding to the needs as they are likely to manifest over the course of the next months.

These types of crises, whether it is drought or floods, these are recurrent. These are cyclical in Somalia and the cycles are getting shorter and shorter and the impact is getting higher and higher. And what that necessitates from the Somali authorities, supported by the international community, including the United Nations, is to invest in solutions to reduce the risks for the future, to reduce humanitarian needs for the future through targeting the types of development deficits that have been a structural challenge for the country over recent decades. There’s been far more money spent on humanitarian response than on investment in development in the past two decades.

We have an opportunity now. The SRSG mentioned the HIPC, the Highly Indebted Poor Countries process, which will be completed at the end of this year and will enable an expansion of the development agenda. And that development agenda needs to focus on addressing the underlying drivers of these types of cyclical crises and risks and threats for the future, and build greater resilience of Somali citizens and Somali institutional structures to be able to manage these types of crises more sustainably into the future.

So, we are seeking to rebalance our engagements from principally humanitarian to much more developmental engagements to reduce, again, risk for the future. We do have a development cooperation framework that we’re supporting the Government across multiple areas. Much of the work that we do is directly joined with the Mission structures in support of the state-building agenda, justice, the rule of law and others.

But we're making increased investments into climate adaptation, into environmental management, into certainly the stabilisation agenda and expanding basic service delivery systems into newly-accessible areas where people have not had access to recurrent service delivery, some for a very long time – over a decade. And we have opened a new funding window called the Somalia Joint Fund, which has now become operational. And we have a pipeline of next generation of development engagements coming online.

So, we hope that this is a good opportunity to pivot our engagement towards a focus on solutions and reducing risk for the future to help the Somalis achieve their vision of sustainable development, peace and prosperity, and progress towards the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda.

And it’s going to be a tough next couple of months, most certainly with the anticipated floods. But it also is a massive opportunity coming up over the next couple of years to really accelerate Somalia's progress towards the SDGs.

Thank you.

AISA KACYIRA: Thank you.

Dear SRSG, deputy SRSGs, colleagues, distinguished members of the press. Good morning to you all.

It has been a great honour and pleasure for me to lead the UN Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS) since my appointment by the Secretary-General and arrival in Somalia in April of this year.

For those of you who may not know, UNSOS is the quieter member of the UN family. You may not always see us up close, but we are there, busy working in the background, providing the much-needed logistical support to various clients and ensuring that operations can run in an effective, efficient and agile manner.

Our work is possible thanks to the guidance and support of our strategic headquarters in New York, the strong partnership that we have with the African Union (AU), the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), the troop and police-contributing countries, and most importantly, the Government of Somalia and of course, our UN family. So, we are here in support of the vision of the Government and people of Somalia towards peace, stability and prosperity. And my colleagues have really very well elaborated on that.

The clients we serve to this extent are the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia, called ATMIS, the Somali Security Forces (SSF), UNSOM, and the other parts of the UN family in Somalia and the broader international community.

For ATMIS and the SSF mainly, we provide non-lethal logistical support as they fight against Al-Shabaab to ensure the security and protection of the population and the ability of us, as an international community in supporting them, as has been very well articulated. This is a daily and complex effort. And, just to situate it into what the SRSG mentioned, we are right now under the process of transition. And I want to say that when it started in June, everything went well. But because of the ongoing offensive and at the same time the transition, the Government requested that there be a pause.

So as had been planned in September, it did not take place, but it is hoped that it would take place in December. As of now, we continue to work very closely together. And I want to say that we have great teamwork and collaboration amongst all the partners.

Just to also elaborate what this means in terms of what we do, because it requires a lot of movement of personnel, as you can imagine, [and moving] material supplies around the country by air, by land and sea.

We provide food, water and fuel. We run helicopters and we have got vehicle fleets. We provide radio, phones and connectivity for communication during these military operations. We also provide medical services and medical evacuations by air for ATMIS and SSF troops. We know and honour the sacrifices these forces have made and continue to do so in fighting for a peaceful Somalia.

Apart from the security side of things, UNSOS has also stepped up in providing support in other areas, especially with logistics. For instance, while we do not have a development mandate, when called upon and it’s critical, we maintained and resurfaced airstrips around the country, notably in Baidoa, Jowhar, Dhusamareb and Belet Weyne.

We have built firefighting capacity at airstrips, in Mogadishu in particular. Our firefighting training and equipment supports access by commercial airlines. And, once in a while, we are also called upon by the Government to provide support – I think the [most] recent one was where we were requested to support the Government to transport examination materials to hard-to-reach areas. This is just a brief snapshot of the support that UNSOS provides to its partners.

Looking ahead, we expect that this support will continue and enable a smooth and sustainable, changing security landscape as reflected in the Somali transition plan, which will see the Somali Security Forces assume full security responsibility from ATMIS at the end of next year. As SSF takes up more and more security responsibilities it is of key importance that they are trained and equipped accordingly.

Through the UNSOS-administered Trust Fund in support of the SSF, we do our very best in implementing priorities set by the Somali Government in this regard. We are, for example, training Somali Security Forces in the spheres of aviation operations, aviation security and medical, evacuations and management of other logistics-related fields.

In the context of this transition UNSOS supports the logistics around also the handover of Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) from ATMIS to the Somali Security Forces. And this includes gifting of some of the facilities, the utilities, the UN generators, water treatment plants, establishing some more long-lasting water points and handing all these over with associated relevant training to the Somali Security Forces to ensure that it is all well-managed and is sustainable. All this is done in the spirit of building capacity and sustaining operations and supporting security.

As we go through this transition, I would like to take this opportunity to say that UNSOS remains committed to carrying out its role as a strategic enabler for its clients, for the ultimate benefit of Somalia. And I want to commend the great collaboration and support we continue to get from the Government of Somalia and its people, and also from our other partners.

And we do trust that the success of our mission in Somalia will really be defined by how the Somali Security Forces fully take up their responsibilities, and Somalia taking charge of its own security and development.

I thank you for your kind attention.

 

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

 

Journalist: Firstly, I want to say happy birthday to the UN and thank you, I think the world has been very pleased with you. I have three questions for each of the officials here.

Question number one is about the humanitarian sector. You mentioned the funding gap – how is that impacting the operations on the ground? You mentioned some statistics about farmland impacted, and also the number of people expected to be impacted.

In the political sector, the Federal Government of Somalia has recently [inaudible] the SSC Khatumo administration. What is your position on that? And how the UN on the ground will be working there?

And the third question goes to UNSOS. I have seen a report that you have provided three helicopters to the Burundian forces to support the ongoing operations. Somalia is currently facing arms sanctions. Are you extending that in future to Somalia's armed forces? Thank you.

GEORGE CONWAY: Thank you. An important question.

As the situation stands right now, today, we have initial resources in hand, flexible funding that we are using to respond to needs as they arise, and to support the initial preparedness and pre-positioning of some supplies to support communities that we know will be likely impacted by floods.

However, if the scale of the flooding manifests over the next two to three months at the levels that the science indicates it likely will, we will be very hard-pressed to respond at the scale necessary. And we are appealing to donors and we are undertaking for where there has already been flooding and flash floods, we have undertaken assessments to see what the scale of need is. At this stage right now, we’re able to engage, if it does flood to the extent, as I mentioned, it would be very, very difficult to get supplies in place, to support with shelter, with access to fresh water, with appropriate support to health and prevention of diseases, especially cholera, sanitation – that is a concern to us. So, we continue to engage very actively with our donor community to ensure that we can go to scale if and when necessary. Thank you.

CATRIONA LAING: Thank you. The question on SSC – my understanding is the government does not recognise this area as a state but has recognised them as an administration, and therefore a body they will engage with. The UN obviously does not recognise bodies. But we note this administration and are also engaging with them in order to be able to deliver, as you mentioned, the humanitarian response that is sorely needed.

My understanding is that there is about 200,000 people displaced following the fighting. So, it has been a huge priority for us to get in there. OCHA [UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs], which is the humanitarian part of the UN, has provided $2 million focusing on health, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene), and nutrition for people in Laascaanood. There are obviously many people who have been displaced so, we are also providing support to those who have been displaced, and even as far as Ethiopia, where some people have moved to.

The priority going forward is to move beyond the emergency response, to try and support rehabilitation and reconstruction and so on. There will need to be assurances that there is sufficient security to enable that. And then the final thing to say on this is that there is a lot of unexploded ordnance in this area so our team from the UN Mine Action Services has been on the ground to identify where that ordnance and to train people to be able to dismantle it safely. So, the situation at the moment is relatively calm. As I mentioned, people are returning home, but obviously, long-term development is going to require security and underlying grievances being tackled. Thank you.

AISA KACYIRA: Thank you very much for your question. I just want to highlight two things: that the reason why the Security Council actually did increase the number of aircraft in this season was to enable the transition amidst an active threat of Al-Shabaab, so that the troops, the ATMIS troops, working in coordination and jointly with the SSF would be able to confront the offensive and at the same time reduce the number of troops because that is what it was planned for. And that is enabled by the funding of assessed contributions.

Now, when it comes to support to the SSF, while the numbers have been increased, we do not yet have access to assessed contributions. It has to come from the Trust Fund. And so, in that regard, on the list of the identified areas of support, the aircraft is not there. And even that which is there and which is really very basic, we are not able to fully meet it.

I want to take this opportunity to really thank our donors, and especially the UK, the US and others for their support. But the context is that even though they are Burundian-run, they are really supporting security in Somalia and that is why they are able to address the offensive but [also] continue to reduce the number of troops. That that is the purpose. Thank you.

Journalist: Since ATMIS is leaving and the work of ATMIS and UNSOM is connected, does that mean that UNSOM will also leave once ATMIS leaves?

CATRIONA LAING: It is quite a complex architecture that we have here. So just to explain again, so, UNSOM is a political Mission and it has its own mandate which is actually about to go through the Security Council resolution to be, we hope, extended for another year.

ATMIS is a separate mission, with AU (African Union) troops. Then we have UNSOS and it provides support both to ATMIS and also to UNSOM. So, we are distinct missions, but obviously, we work very closely together. There are links. So the ATMIS troops provide very important security for all of us on the ground. And it is ATMIS troops who protect the AAIA (Aden Adde International Airport), for example. So, we are dependent on each other in that sense. But each mission is distinct and different, and the Security Council determines the missions independently. But obviously, taking account of how the different missions work together. Aisa, do you want to add anything to that?

AISA KACYIRA: Thank you very much. What I can add is that UNSOS is here to support ATMIS and the SSF, as I mentioned, in availing logistical support for them to be able to deliver on providing security. And as the UN we would only be here as long as there is a national or multilateral organ that we do support in that regard. That is what I can say for now. But the whole process of discussing that and defining and deciding on what will happen, I think is on course and, as we go, it will be defined. So, thank you very much.

Journalist: I have two questions on press freedom and security issues. The first question is about Somali media are under fire or under attack and we are being intimidated and targeted.

The first question is what is your intention to defend press freedom?

The second question is, you discussed at the Security Council about the tensions in Jubaland and South West State and this is about illegal term extension. Are you willing to interfere in this situation if it turns into violence?

CATRIONA LAING: Thank you very much. I'm going to ask my deputy, Kiki, to take the second question. On the first question about media freedom, which is a very important one, I did mention it in my opening remarks. So, as you know, we were all guided by obviously by the law, and the Provisional Constitution, Article 18, does, in theory, guarantee the right to freedom of expression. And there is a Media Law which also enables freedom of expression in line with the Constitution. So, the legal parameters are there. The key, of course, as in in many areas in Somalia, is implementation.

And we as the UN, our job is really to do three things. One, it is to monitor the situation and to report violations, and we do that through various reports. We are required as the UN to do periodic reports, and, in fact, we are about to publish one shortly on freedom of expression, which documents really, really carefully the progress and the challenges that are there.

And that document is one we will therefore use to do the second thing, which is advocacy. So, we monitor and then we use the data we gather to advocate with the Government on the importance of implementing their own constitution and their own laws on this.

And then, thirdly, we do quite a lot of capacity-building, some of which is done, I think, Ari, through your shop [Strategic Communications and Public Affairs Group], isn't it, through capacity-building with journalists so that you not only become better journalists, but also are equipped to hold your government to account in relation to your own freedom of expression.

The final thing I would say on this is that it links to Somalia's aspiration, which is a good aspiration, to become increasingly a responsible member of the international community. And to do that, and to not just be a subject to discussion at the UN, to be a part of the UN shaping international architecture, the more progress Somalia can show that it is made on these basic freedoms – including freedom of expression and human rights, more generally – the more Somalia will be a respected member of the international community. So, we also use that to advocate as to why it matters: the world is watching Somalia, and as you progress on your journey to state-building, freedom of expression is one really, really important pillar.

Let me turn to Kiki for the second question.

ANITA KIKI GBEHO: On term extension, I think the SRSG was clear that the Constitutional Review Process is critical because that sets up the ‘rule book.’ And once that is done, there will be clarity on what Somalis decide. This is not something that can be decided by external actors. It needs to be decided by Somalis. I think you have all seen the UN in the past use its ‘good offices’ role where there are difficult issues, where the issues are at times intractable, you will see the UN play a role trying to understand what the different sides of the issue are and then support the different actors and the stakeholders to find the solution moving forward.

So, in some, I would say this is a decision for the Somali people. It underscores the importance of the Constitutional Review Process. The NCC has put a model on the table, and we will continue to support this process. I mentioned in my remarks that we will support the Constitutional Review Process, hoping that that will provide the rule book in terms of the way forward when it comes to terms and other serious issues for Somalia.

Journalist (Online): Is the withdrawal of ATMIS by the end of next year viable in your opinion, given what has happened in recent months?

CATRIONA LAING: Thank you very much. So, as you will be aware, under the ATMIS mandate, which is endorsed by the AU Peace Security Council and the UN Security Council, ATMIS is due to exit by the end of December [2024]. It is important, of course, that the capability is there and the capacity is there to take on the roles that ATMIS performs and I think in recognition of, as the head of UNSOS said, the challenge of fighting the campaign as at the same time generating enough forces to take over the Forward Operating Bases.

There has been a request for a technical pause to enable a bit more time for the second phase of this drawdown from September to December. The second thing is that the Government is gearing up now with support from partners, including the UN and the AU for a big conference in New York in December, which is going to look at the post-December 2024 security architecture.

So, recognising that there is going to be an ongoing need for support from partners in in probably maybe slightly different configurations going forward, but they will lead by setting out their vision for what they think the gaps are and how those are best filled. That will be an open and frank discussion and any proposals that emerge from that will then, of course, go back to the AU Peace and Security Council and the UN Security Council.

So, I think that is the situation we are in. So, we will be taking stock in December and taking the work forward after that. Thank you.

Journalist: My question is about the humanitarian situation. As you have said, four million people in Somalia need humanitarian aid and there are many people who are displaced. What are the UN agencies doing for the displaced people in Mogadishu when they have to pay for water, when many displaced people have no shelter, when many displaced people in Mogadishu are living in small homes made of clothing and sticks? Especially, with El Niño coming. What is the UN doing to help these people?

GEORGE CONWAY: Thank you for a very important question and, again, it is currently a very complicated situation, and I fear it only gets worse in the next few months as the El Niño impact kicks in. You know, a lot of our support to IDPs (internally displaced people), IDP families and communities has come through different types of assistance, including through cash transfers, so that people have cash in pocket to be able to buy basic necessities.

We scaled up our assistance to prevent the famine from happening. And at the maximum we were doing cash transfers to over four million people. The number of people that were able [to reach], given our financial constraints right now today, at least by August, was about 1.8 million people. So, our support directly to displaced communities has gone down quite substantively because of the funding challenges.

Now we are trying to mobilise more money in order to bring that back up. A lot of the money that we received this year early on was committed and spent in support of Somali citizens across the country, in almost all areas of the country, to prevent the famine that was then ameliorated by the Gu rains.

Since the Gu rains, our funding has gone down and that means the coverage of our humanitarian response has likewise gone down and is not sufficient at this stage. And this is the advocacy that we're doing with broad partners and the international community, especially as we go into this El Niño season. And we know there will be significant additional displacement.

We're already seeing it start to happen from flash flooding. That said, it's a lot of impact on internal displacement, per se, and on IDP communities; a lot of these communities have been displaced many years ago, and remain in very vulnerable situations. So, what we are trying also to work with Government, is on shifting from humanitarian-based assistance to more empowering development assistance to either integrate people into local communities, to support them if they so desire to go back to their areas of origin, and to find what we call durable solutions for this displacement.

Because we cannot have such a high level of people across the country chronically dependent on humanitarian assistance. We have to empower people to find permanent shelters, to be able to access gainful employment, to be able to access the services they need for their families, whether it’s health, education or water. And it needs different types of assistance than what has been provided largely thus far by the humanitarians.

And it is something that the Government is very keen to, again, pivot the way that we do business and that we support these communities directly. But it's a complicated situation, in particular as we look forward to the potential impacts of El Niño, and I am genuinely concerned.

Journalist (Online): Thank you for this opportunity to speak directly to Somalis.

I have four questions.

UNSOM is mandated by the Security Council to provide strategic and policy advice on various aspects, including peacebuilding and state-building. This also includes monitoring of human rights and coordination in the efforts of the international community. Sadly, the UN Mission has long been described as a branch of the corrupt government in Mogadishu, and instead of conducting its work independently and knowing the fact that UNSOM has stopped publishing its human rights reports, the UN Mission now has become, it looks like, to have become a subject to this corrupt and abusive regime in Mogadishu.

My question here to Ambassador Laing is, after all these years, after all this funding, do you foresee any meaningful contribution by your office, UNSOM, to Somalis in terms of improving the rights, women and girls and children, vulnerable communities, promoting accountability and justice?

Question number two, referring to something Ambassador Kiki has said, the alternative dispute resolution centres. Can you mention one just one and one case that has been resolved?

For my question about Laascaanood, back to Ambassador Laing. You have mentioned three main issues and these include, detainees to be released, ensure [inaudible] and de-escalation. But surprisingly, you haven't mentioned anything about accountability. Can you speak about accountability for the killing and shelling of civilians in Laascaanood.

Finally, in your opening remarks, and the recent statement to the Security Council, while talking about human rights you haven’t described anything related to the attacks against journalists. Just last week we lost one colleague called Abdifatah Mohamednoor Khair of Somali television, who was killed in Mogadishu. You haven't condemned this in your statement and in your opening remarks this morning. I'm surprised by that. Was this intentional? And will you condemn all the attacks against journalists, including those conducted by the SSF that you are supporting? Thank you very much.

CATRIONA LAING: Thank you very much for these questions. You have directed to me question one and three, and then I will pass on to Kiki.

So, I think on your point about our [UNSOM] mandate, what are we actually achieving is your key question. So, I think the mandate is very broad and gives us a ‘good offices’ role in resolving various disputes. And there are many around Somalia at the moment. One very live one you have mentioned is Laascaanood, and I will come to that. But there are tensions. There are tensions around term extensions, there are tensions, frankly, even on agreeing on the process by which there should be agreement around the Constitution.

So, this is not easy. This country is on a complex journey of state-building. There are numerous layers to this, the foundation of which is, frankly, rule of law, which my deputy has mentioned, and that includes justice and it includes accountability. And all of this has to be in place.

It’s not perfect, but I think we have got examples where we, the UN, have made a concrete difference. And I mentioned some of those which are in the human rights domain, where I think both Kiki and I are pleased with the progress around the Disability Rights Bill, for example, the Child Rights Bill, the Juvenile Justice Bill. And all of these bills need to be linked to Somalia's international obligations. And then, of course, ultimately the law is only fair and useful if it’s implemented.

So, we are not there yet. But I think in terms of making progress, I think we have got examples where we have done this. You have specifically talked about the area of human rights and journalists. One of the reasons I did not cover this in detail in my statement is that we are about to put out a report on exactly this topic. It is incredibly detailed. I have gone through it in a lot of detail myself, because every word counts, [as does] the way we craft things, the way we watch things, our recommendations. It does recognise some progress, but frankly, it does recognise also that there is quite a long way to go on freedom of expression for journalists. And we do speak out. We speak out sometimes privately, because it is more effective and there are some things that we do very publicly. But rest assured, this is very high on our agenda.

Finally, going back to Laascaanood and on accountability. You are right, I did not mention that in my opening remarks, but not because it is not important. And I agree with the sort of underlying sort of tenor of your question, which is when there has been conflict, when atrocities have been committed on both sides, one hugely important part of moving forward and dealing with the underlying drivers of any conflict is that people feel there is accountability for injustice.

And that is something that is very firmly on our agenda to all of the different interlocutors who have a part to play in bringing a long-term peaceful resolution to Laascaanood. The reason I mentioned the detainee exchange is because in many, many conflicts that is often step one in building confidence and, therefore, creating a foundation on which there can be accountability. So, there is some sequencing to this, but accountability, you are absolutely right, is crucial. Let me turn over to Kiki for a second question.

ANITA KIKI GBEHO: Thank you. We can provide a more comprehensive list of some of the disputes that have been resolved. For example, land disputes where people have been asked to leave their land and have gone to ADR [alternate dispute resolutions] for some kind of solution. Also, personal disputes. What comes to mind immediately was a case between a woman and her husband. ADR helped to resolve it, but we can definitely find more examples of what these cases were and precisely where the ADR has supported – so that can be provided.

And in terms of reports, we do issue public reports. Even right now, SRSG, I think on your desk, you have recently cleared a draft that is with Government. We always circulate the drafts so that they are reviewed. And if there are any comments, we take those comments on board, and we publish them. Can we do more? Of course, we always can. But I do think that in terms of monitoring and speaking out, when the opportunities arise, we try to take them, and we'd be happy to engage further on how we can strengthen our support and our advocacy moving forward. Thank you.

Journalist: My question is about South West State and Jubaland – they have extended their terms (in office) and don’t have an agreement on this. What will be your action on this?

CATRIONA LAING: I think on these term extensions, I think Kiki replied to an earlier question on this. I think at the end of the day, it is hard to get full consensus and agreement because every time a change is made, there are winners and there are losers.

But the key for us is to facilitate inclusive dialogue, comprehensive dialogue, and for the people of Somalia to agree with their Government what the process is going forward, and for us to come behind that to enable the elections when they do happen to be fully representative of the people. So, it is not for the UN to decide this, but to recognise when there are tensions and disputes, and then use our good-offices role to try and find a way through this in a way that, at least, there is broad agreement, even if not everyone is going to be fully happy, because people will never be fully happy when there’s a change. As I said, there are some people who benefit from that and some people who lose out.

Thank you.

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Watch the press conference here.