Somaliland rejects UNSC statement or resolution suggesting any ATMIS’s mandate includes Somaliland

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Somaliland rejects UNSC statement or resolution suggesting any ATMIS’s mandate includes the Republic of Somaliland.

The following statement was issued today by the Somaliland Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Government of the Republic of Somaliland rejects any statement from the UN Security Council that would suggest that the African Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS’s) mandate includes Somaliland. Somaliland is an independent sovereign state, and ATMIS has never been a jurisdictional mandate over Somaliland.

Somaliland has repeatedly stated its position to the UN Security Council, but the government believes it is important to reiterate it now, in light of recent developments. The UN Security Council is voting on a resolution draft concerning Somalia’s ATMIS mandate extension, we believe that this resolution may also appear to suggest that ATMIS’s mandate includes the Republic of Somaliland.

The Somaliland government is deeply concerned by this suggestion. AMISOM and its successor (ATMIS) is a peacekeeping mission that has been deployed in Somalia since 2007 to help the Somali government fight al-Shabab and other terrorist groups. Based on the AU fact-finding mission dated back in 2005, clearly stated that “since its declaration on May 18^th 1991, Somaliland has the attributes of the modern state”. Therefore,  ATMIS has never been mandated to operate in Somaliland, and the Somaliland government repeatedly made this clear to the UN Security Council.

The Somaliland government urges the UN Security Council to rectify its position on any resolution that includes ATMIS’s mandate in Somaliland and to respect the Somaliland people’s will to be an independent sovereign country.