U.N. council targets trouble-makers in Somalia

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council voted on Thursday to impose sanctions on anyone contributing to violence and instability in Somalia, in a bid to curb fighting in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.

The resolution, adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council, is a framework that does not identify individuals or entities to be sanctioned. That will be decided later by a sanctions committee.

The British-drafted resolution calls for asset freezes and travel bans for anyone engaging in or supporting violence in Somalia, including individuals or companies that violate a 1992 U.N. arms embargo against the country.

It also targets anyone obstructing delivery of humanitarian assistance to Somalia, where hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes.

"The prime goal of this is ... to stem the flow of arms into Somalia, which is causing such mayhem there," Britain's U.N. Ambassador John Sawers told reporters.

Somalia has been in virtual anarchy since the collapse of a dictatorship 17 years ago. Islamists now control most of the south. Feuding, heavily armed clan militias hold sway in many other areas and a weak, Western-backed interim government has little authority outside the capital of Mogadishu.

The African Union's top diplomat said the United Nations should send peacekeepers to Somalia urgently to stop the strife that is fuelling piracy and is aggravated by feuding politicians.

But, faced with problems encountered by U.N. peacekeeping forces in turbulent Congo and Sudan, the council has been reluctant to send its blue-helmeted troops into a situation it sees as even worse, despite pressure from African countries.