Eritrea demands UN Security Council lift sanctions

ERITREA has said arms sanctions imposed on it by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) since 2009 were unjust and that they did not serve any useful purpose.

This was contained in the country’s address at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly held in New York. Its Foreign Affairs Minister, Osman Saleh Mohammed, delivered Eritrea’s address. He addressed wide ranging issues from the need for the UN to do more to truly unite nations, why developed nations had to shoulder more responsibility in the march for a fairer world and why the continent should not allow itself to be flattered by talk of an African Renaissance.

It further addressed the quiet and strategic ways that Eritrea continued to work towards improving the lot of its people in different facets of their lives. The issues of the almost ten-yearold sanctions came at the concluding part of the address.

“Eritrea strongly believes that its political, economic, social and diplomatic path would be smoother and easier if external obstacles that have been put on its path were removed.

“It therefore once again calls on the UN Security Council to lift the unfair and unjust sanctions imposed on it for the past nine years. There is no justification for them to continue and they do not serve any useful purpose,” he stressed.

In 2009, a U.s.-led motion led to the imposition of UNSC arms sanctions on Eritrea with the reason that they supported Somalia’s insurgent group, al-Shabaab. Asmara has increasingly rejected the claims.