US Restricts Issuance of Visas to Somali Individuals Who Undermine Democracy - State Dept.

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th February, 2022) The United States has restricted the issuance of visas to Somali officials and individuals who have been engaged in efforts to undermine democracy in the country, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

"Today, on the one-year anniversary of the expiration of the Somali president's term in office, I am announcing the implementation of a policy under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that restricts the issuance of visas to current or former Somali officials or other individuals who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic process in Somalia, including through violence against protestors, unjust arrests or intimidation of journalists and opposition members, and manipulation of the electoral process," the statement said on Tuesday.

The policy will be applied to those individuals who been engaged in procedural irregularities that have resulted in failure to implement timely and transparent elections and targeting journalists and opposition, according to the statement.

Blinken is calling on Somalia's national leadership to hold credible parliamentary elections by February 25 to provide for sustainable peace and responsive governance in the country, the statement said.

In January, Somali National Television reported that the National Consultative Council of Somalia has decreed the elections to the lower house of the country's parliament should be held before February 25.

The country's elections were scheduled to take place from October 1 to November 20, but the plan did not materialize.

Somalia collapsed as a unified nation in 1991 with the downfall of Siad Barre's dictatorship. The international community recognized the Federal government as the only legitimate authority in the country, which controls the capital Mogadishu and several other areas. The rest of Somalia is controlled by unrecognized state entities or self-governed, including the unrecognized Republic of Somaliland in the north and the autonomous Puntland region in the east.