Today, more than 500 prominent leaders from the civil society, members of the business community, women groups, religious leaders, traditional elders and youth, have once again meeting to express our concerns about the United Nations’ Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group “SEMG” which continues to violate the rights of Somali citizens, including high-ranking government officials, business leaders, members of the civil society with groundless accusations and fabricated reports.
With our communique on March 19, 2016, and yesterday’s public rally, we strongly reiterate our objection to the SEMG’s questionable practices and unethical approach for gathering information just to implicate innocent individuals for ulterior motives. “The SEMG sensational reporting has not only damaged individuals and government institutions, it also impacted on the growth and recovery of private sectors and the economic activities in the country.
In addition, the SEMG’s strategy for obstructing development and stability in Somalia has been noted by its consistent use of fabricated stories, discrediting key officials for political purposes, endangering private citizens and resorting to threatening and extortionist tactics to obtain information. Such behavior should not be tolerated and it must be dealt with immediately.
We express our appreciation to the partnerships of other UN agencies and the support by international community, who firmly contribute to the development of Somalia. But we will never appreciate the behavior of the SEMG to unravel the blood and toil sacrifices to achieve where we are today.
The leaders of the civil society, business community, women groups, religious leaders and the youth, call on therefore, the Federal Government of Somalia to exercise its responsibility for protecting the people’s aspirations for peace and stability by countering the recklessness of the SEMG and its rogue behavior under the pretext of the United Nations arms embargo on Somalia.
The Government mustexpel the SEMG and equally demand from the Security Council to dissolve the group for derailing peacebuilding efforts in Somalia.
