The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

The Secretary-General deeply regrets the decision of the Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia to declare the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), Nicholas Haysom, persona non grata. Haysom had questioned the legal basis used in the arrest last month of Mukhtar Robow, a former al-Shabab spokesman who defected from the group in 2017, and whether U.N.-funded regional police in Southwest state were involved.
Somalia expels Nicholas Haysom, the most senior United Nations diplomat in the country, after accusing him of "acting like the country's ruler".