Foreign Affairs committee  Again, without knowing specifically what taxpayer commitments Canada has made, essentially I think there's no alternative. I agree with Ken completely that there's no alternative. Without international support, without AMISOM, without western financial commitments to AMISOM, al

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll stick with the last five years. That's what I've been looking most intensely at on the ground, to some degree. To answer, again equally bluntly, I think that politically there have been improvements. I think the overall trend towards creating and supporting federal member s

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would agree with that completely. We did a lot of work on taxation this year, as I mentioned. The universal response from local inhabitants who had to conduct trade, such as truck drivers and businessmen, was that they prefer to deal with al Shabaab rather than take routes th

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm not a doctor yet, and probably not soon to be. I don't think I have quite as comprehensive an answer on this, but I would say that in terms of federalism, one very significant issue is the provisional constitution, which is yet to be finalized after years and years of consti

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that's one for Dr. Menkhaus.

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. As you pointed out, the arms embargo was partially lifted in 2013 to allow the federal government, and theoretically federal member states as well, to import arms up to a certain calibre—essentially, small arms up to 14.5 millimetres and mortars up to 82 millimetres, I thi

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm sorry. Is that for me now?

Foreign Affairs committee  I'd say we're in a fortunate position in the Somalia and Eritrea monitoring group in that we often have to provide criticism and point out where things are going wrong, and often aren't asked for solutions. I have a few personal thoughts. I think that in general, the change of

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and honourable members of Parliament, for allowing me to address you here today. I will start with saying a few words about what I do and what our group does. The Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea is a collection of eight experts appointed by the UN