Sources By Matthew Russell Lee
Innercitypress
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UNITED NATIONS, November 9 — When UK Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond came to the UN to chair a meeting on Somalia, then out to the stakeout to take questions, one assumed they would include Somalia.
But no.
Hammond’s spokesman, standing up in not wearing a poppy, picked four questions: the first from the BBC, repeating David Cameron’s comments about the European Union; the next about Iraq and Syria; the third about when British “holidaymakers” may return to Egypt, and the fourth about Vienna, Syria and ISIS.
Before the third and fourth, Inner City Press said, “Question on Somalia?” And as Hammond walked off, Inner City Press asked more loudly, “Somaliland?” Nothing.
That was it. This on a day when the Security Council is tobelatedly meet about Burundi, on which the UK has cited threats of genocide. After Hammond’s non-Somalia questions and answers, the media stakeout was nearly empty when the UK Presidency adopted a Presidential Statement on DR Congo, without even reading it out. What does this say about the place of Africa?
Back on June 3 when the UN’s (now outgoing) envoy in Somalia Nicholas Kay took questions via Twitter, Inner City Press asked him what the UN is doing to preserve the ability to send remittances to Somalia, as well as questions about Burundian “peacekeepers” and Somaliland.
Kay answered the remittance question: “@innercitypress Raising our voice to sound alarm on impact if Somali remittances stop. Urging search for solutions. #UNSomTwoYears.”
