UK renews charcoal ban from Somalia

The UK has reaffirmed its sanctions on charcoal imports from Somalia warning of prison sentences for violations.

In its updated version of the sanctions following exit from the EU, the UK government announced this week the sanctions are in conformity with previous UN Security Council sanctions.

“This good is prohibited where it is consigned from or originating in Somalia. This means that even if the immediate place the goods were shipped from was not Somalia, the prohibition may still apply,” Regulation 37 of the sanctions regime reads in part.

According to the revised sanctions which came into effect on January 2021 to replace EU sanctions, anyone who violates the sanctions will be punished with a jail term of a maximum of ten years.

The UK regulations reinforce earlier sanctions by the UN Security Council which are part of the arms embargo first imposed on Somalia at the height of the civil war in 1992.