By: Yusuf M Hasan
HARGEISA (Somalilandsun)- Plans are afoot to replace both Amb Augustine Mahiga who is the UN special representative to Somalia and his United Nations Political Office for Somalia-UNPOS
This was disclosed by the planning minister Dr Saad Ali Shire during an interview with the Horn Newspaper and Somalilandsun in which he also informed that UNPOS shall be replaced by a new agency with a broader inter Somaliland-Somalia mandate.
Dr Saad made this disclosure after meeting with a six member Technical Assessment Mission-TAM team dispatched to the country by the United Nations Security Council-UNSC.
Read the verbatim excerpts of the interview below
Minister kindly brief us on the outcome of your meeting with the TAM team
Our meeting with the TAM team pertained to discussions on a new agency the UN is creating to replace the UNPOS one which is currently run by Amb Augustine Mahiga.
The essence behind the replacement of both Mahiga and UNPOS is the widening of UN activities which it shall consolidate in the former united countries of Somaliland and Somalia.
After Understanding that the new agency shall be headquartered in Mogadishu which shall then maintain a satellite of in Hargeisa, we asked if this means that whatever funding or related a
llocations are made for Somaliland have to be authorize by Mogadishu authorities? And the answer was no,
Affairs of the two countries shall be handled separately and whatever we received from the UN before shall continue without any reductions or further strings attached.
Is it true that the UN is transferring all its main offices to Mogadishu?
Yes, in view of the fact that Somalia is now more secure the UN intends to transfer all its offices formerly based in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to the now peaceful Mogadishu.
Are there any particular reasons behind the low profile reception given to the visiting UN team?
No, the UN received all the appropriate reception from the government apart from meeting the president whose departure for an official state visit to the UAE coincide with their arrival
End
The six member TAM team led by a female Chinese delegate comp
osed two representatives from the UNPOS office of Amb Mahiga in Mogadishu (one Briton and one Zambian) and the remaining four members are directly from the UNSC in New York.
The the Technical Assessment Mission-TAM which was assembled and dispatched by the United nations security council shall deliver its report of findings at the Somalia conference to be held in London on 7th May 20013.
