UN Security Council to make Somalia visit ahead of vote

The UN Security Council will travel to Somalia this month to show support for elections scheduled in August, Egypt’s UN Ambassador and this month’s council president, Amr Aboulatta, said Monday.

The 15 envoys will also travel to Nairobi during the May 17-21 trip and hold meetings in Cairo with the Arab League, Aboulatta said, presenting the program of work for the month.

“The council will be going to Somalia to push for the elections,” he said. “The election is supposed to be held in the month of August and we will try to give the support of the council.”

The vote will be Somalia’s second since 1991, when warlords ousted President Mohamed Siad Barre, plunging the country into years of war and chaos. The last elections took place in 2012.

Last month, the Security Council heard a report on the situation in Somalia during a special meeting in New York attended by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Voting for the upcoming general elections will take place through electoral colleges, but the council has said it should be a stepping stone to one-person, one-vote elections in 2020.

Under the electoral model, 30 percent of seats in parliament will be reserved for women.