'Milestones are clear' for 'significant progress' in Somalia during 2019, Security Council hears.

Somali Government efforts to build a lasting peace through political reform and transformation have progressed along a 'positive trajectory' but everyone involved in the process needs to 'pull in the same direction', the UN Special Representative in the country told the Security Council on Thursday.

Nicholas Haysom commended the Office of the Prime Minister 'for leading Government efforts to tackle corruption', and praised improvements in public financial management which had led to a recorded surplus of $8 million last September.

But turning to Somalia's complex 'Roadmap on Inclusive Politics' reform process, he said that a 'key milestone' had been missed in not meeting the December deadline for a draft new Electoral Law. Despite that, the National Independent Electoral Commission has made progress with voter registration planning, and 35 political parties have been officially registered.

'Women's meaningful participation' in the Constitutional Review process, and other draft national agreements on justice, mineral resource-sharing, 'allocation of powers and fiscal federalism' was essential, said the top UN official from South Africa, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia, UNSOM.

Overshadowing progress there however, he said, was a continuing stalemate between the leaders of central Government, and Somalia's Member States, which 'continues to impede progress in defining the federal model, building institutions of state, and in the implementation of the National Security Architecture'.

There had been encouraging steps taken to 'restore relations' by the President and Prime Minister, and a committee established to work with the Upper House of parliamentary representatives, Mr. Haysom told Council members.

Risk that 'complexity shifts to conflict'

The Special Representative noted that 'politics is complex in any nation, but in one that is still establishing its norms, institutional parameters' and debating how they will work for the common good 'there is a risk that complexity shifts to conflict'.

This had proved the case in the election process for South West State, where allegations of interference by the Federal Government and violence which erupted following the arrest of a...