The Se­cu­rity Coun­cil to­day adopted a res­o­lu­tion ex­tend­ing the man­date of the United Na­tions As­sis­tance Mis­sion in So­ma­lia (UN­SOM) as the Horn of Africa coun­try con­tin­ues down its road to­wards po­lit­i­cal re­cov­ery and in­creased se­cu­rity.

The res­o­lu­tion – adopted unan­i­mously by the 15-mem­ber Coun­cil – reaf­firms the UN body’s “re­spect” for So­ma­li­a’s “sov­er­eignty, po­lit­i­cal in­de­pen­dence, ter­ri­to­r­ial in­tegrity and unity” while al­low­ing the Or­ga­ni­za­tion and African Union (AU) to re­view the dy­nam­ics of a tem­po­rary surge of African Union Mis­sion in So­ma­lia (AMI­SOM) troops.

More­over, the Coun­cil re­called its re­quest for both the UN and AU to set out a se­ries of rec­om­men­da­tions for the next steps in the mil­i­tary cam­paign against Al-Shabaab – the Is­lamist ex­trem­ist group that has waged a long-stand­ing ter­ror­ist cam­paign against So­ma­li­a’s Gov­ern­ment.

In a re­cent brief­ing of the Se­cu­rity Coun­cil, Nicholas Kay, Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Sec­re­tary-Gen­eral for So­ma­lia and head of UN­SOM, told Coun­cil mem­bers that mo­men­tum had been re­gained on ef­forts to achieve po­lit­i­cal progress in the coun­try, point­ing to work by fed­eral, re­gional and lo­cal lead­ers, and par­lia­men­tar­i­ans to build a State through di­a­logue and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, and top-level com­mit­ment to de­liver So­ma­li­a’s Vi­sion 2016 plan.

At the same time, how­ever, he con­ceded that there was “still a long way to go,” adding that with so much at stake be­tween now and 2016, “we can ex­pect Al-Shabaab to do every­thing it can to de­rail the po­lit­i­cal process.”

Just over the week­end, in fact, Yusuf Muham­mad Dirir, a Mem­ber of the Fed­eral Par­lia­ment, was shot and killed along with his dri­ver while an­other MP, Ab­dul­lahi Boss Ahmed, was wounded in the same at­tack.

To­day’s Se­cu­rity Coun­cil ex­ten­sion will now see UN­SOM’s man­date ex­pire on 7 Au­gust 2015.