The sanctions were reinforced on 5 December 2011.[6] On July 16, 2012, a United Nations Monitoring Group report stated that "it had found no evidence of direct Eritrean support for al Shabaab in the past year."[7] In October 2012, the Eritrean government has called for the lifting of the sanctions in light of the news stating that China, Russia, and South Africa have expressed support for them to be lifted.[8] In 2017, United Nations experts wrote: "Given that the Monitoring Group has been unable to find conclusive evidence of Eritrean support for Al-Shabaab in Somalia for four consecutive mandates, the Group recommends that the Security Council consider disassociating the sanction regimes for Eritrea and Somalia."[9]