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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council condemned a "significant increase" in the flow of weapons to and through Somalia in violation of a 1992 arms embargo and voted unanimously Wednesday to keep monitoring weapons trafficking in the poor and lawless Horn of Africa nation.
The council's quick approval of a new monitoring group came as the United States consulted council members on another resolution that would lift the arms embargo for a regional force to help promote dialogue between the weak U.N.-backed transitional government and the Islamic group that controls much of southern Somalia.
Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another. A government was formed with the help of the U.N. two years ago, but has struggled to assert its authority. Islamic militants, meanwhile, have been rising up since June and now control the capital and most of the country's south.
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