AFRICAN UNION

UNION AFRICAINE
UNIO AFRICANA

STATEMENT BY THE
SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CHAIRPERSON
OF THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION (SRCC) FOR
SOMALIA AND HEAD OF AMISOM, AMBASSADOR
MAMAN SIDIKOU DURING EDITORS BREAKFAST,
HELD IN NAIROBI, KENYA ON 6TH AUGUST 2015

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Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to have this opportunity to interact with
you. As I have been introduced, my name is Maman
Sidikou, and I have the privilege and honour, and I dare
add, the challenge of being the AUs Special
Representative for Somalia and Head of AMISOM.
I am about to complete my first year in Somalia, having
been appointed to this post in September last year.
Since my appointment, this is the first time that I am sitting
down with the Kenyan media to share a meal and get to
know you better.
I have read reports that many of you have written about
Somalia and the activities being undertaken by AMISOM
and I appreciate the opportunity to meet with you in
person and to interact with you.
I am privileged to be part of this journey, aimed at
restoring peace and stability in Somalia.
I am eager to hear your views about the work we are
doing to secure and rebuild the country.
It is a challenging task but we are making steady
progress.
Those of you who havent been to Somalia may have a
completely different perspective of the country, owing to
media reports.
I assure you, the country is not as dangerous as many say
it is.
Just a week ago, Somalia hosted a two-day High-Level
Partnership Forum, attended by 32 delegations majority of
them key international stakeholders.

The conference, which was convened in Mogadishu, as a

follow up of the 2014 Copenhagen Conference, was the
biggest the country has convened in decades, an
indication of the growing confidence that the international
partners have on Somalia.
Since it was deployed in 2007, AMISOM has progressively
changed the face of the country, not just by creating an
increasingly more secure environment, but also by
enabling significant progress in the political development
of the country.
Today, Somalia has a provisional national Constitution,
which is being finalized by the Constitution Review
Commission. We have an elected Parliament and an
elected President and the country is looking forward to
democratic elections next year.
The city of Mogadishu is no longer under the grip of the Al
Shabaab extremists, despite the asymmetrical warfare
that they are employing against soft targets.
Businesses are opening up at a fast rate, Somalis are
returning home from the Diaspora, and there is evidence
of vigorous economic activity across the country.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me now talk about AMISOM...what it is, our mandate
and what we do in Somalia.
The core of our mandate, our reason detre if I may say, is
to support the security institutions of the Somali
government to deal with the insecurity in the country
mainly brought about by the terrorist actions of Al
Shabaab.

Further to that, we work closely with the Somali

authorities, and other actors to create an enabling
environment for the Somali government and people to
undertake a range of political activities such as local
reconciliation conferences, establishment of local and
regional governance structures which will eventually
culminate in a federal Somalia.
So far, we have, working with the United Nations
Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), facilitated the
establishment of interim regional administrations for
Jubaland, the South-west and most recently for
Galmudug.
The third pillar of our work involves working with other
partners to support the Somali authorities to re-establish
state institutions as are necessary and to enhance the
capacity of existing institutions to support the
reconstruction of the country.
In this area, as you would appreciate, we are focusing our
attention on the Somalia National Army and Somalia
Police Force.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We carry out our mandated tasks through civilian, military
and police personnel working together, under my direction.
The tasks of our forces are obvious. They are in the
frontlines, together with their Somali brothers and sisters,
of the fight against Al Shabaab.
Our police officers are working with their Somali
counterparts in managing law and order issues whilst also
conducting training and mentoring to help transform the
Somalia Police Force into a more professional body by
world standards.

The civilian personnel I would say are involved in the soft

power aspects of our work, ranging from providing
political advice and inputs in the unfolding political
process, undertaking the necessary liaison with
humanitarian actors, ensuring that we adhere to our
human rights obligations, ensuring that we are cognizant
of gender mainstreaming as we implement our mandate
and of course, ensuring that the Mission is well resourced
and administered in a responsible and accountable
manner.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would assume that many of you are already well versed
in all that, so let me now talk about our operations which I
am sure interest many of you more today.
We are presently carrying out an operation which, as you
may be aware, is code-named operation juba corridor. It
involves removing Al Shabaab from the Juba Corridor
which lies within the Gedo, Bay and Bakool regions.
This operation will further weaken Al Shabaab as we
recover more towns and villages from them. Even more
important is the fact that we will be liberating the residents
of these towns and villages from the agony of living under
the tyranny of Al Shabaab.
We will also be invariably cutting off resources available to
Al Shabaab which they have used to fund their terrorist
activities. Baardhere for instance, is home to vast
agricultural farms, and provided resources to the Al
Shabaab through extortion and illegal taxation while
Dinsoor was a major recruitment and training ground for
the terrorists.

Ladies and gentlemen,

AMSOM is made up of men and women, thousands of

them in uniform, from over several member states of the
African Union.
I am especially proud of their devotion to duty, their
professionalism and perseverance in the face of a most
daunting and challenging environment in which we must
continue to implement our mandate until our Somali
brothers and sisters can assume primary responsibility for
their safety and security.
It is in this spirit that I would like to publicly register this
appreciation, on behalf of the Chairperson of the African
Union Commission, Her Excellency, Dr. Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma, to those of our member states Burundi,
Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone
and Uganda who have deployed their soldiers and
police officers to Somalia.
And it is also with a sense of immense gratitude that I also
salute the sacrifices that very many of our colleagues in
uniform have made and continue to make in this fight
against terror. It is a noble duty that many of them have,
and continue to honour with courage, determination and
discipline to rebuild Somalia and keep the region safer.
Ladies and gentlemen, as I conclude let me underline
what you all know. Today, more than ever before, terrorism
is no longer confined to one country.
As incidents (West Gate and Garrisa, particularly) in
Kenya and other countries have shown, terrorism is a
global problem.
We therefore need concerted efforts to enhance regional
security including, in our case, dealing especially with the
radicalization and recruitment of our youth into terror
organizations.

Let me stop here...I have already spoken longer than I

should.
I have my colleagues here with me who can also share
thoughts and ideas with you so that we can make this an
interactive session.
Thank You.