Italy calls for special conference

Italy called on Wednesday for an international conference within the next two years to solve the chronic crisis in the Horn of Africa. The call was made in Rome after the Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini presided over a meeting of foreign ministers from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia’s interim government. They were attending a Joint Partners Forum of the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Italy presently leads the IGAD Partners Forum. The European Commission, the World Bank and the United Nations were represented among more than twenty delegations attending the meeting, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said in Rome. Dini said the Horn of Africa had been facing “serious challenges”, and should tackle severe food shortages in the region. But he said there were positive developments, including the recent peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the establishment of the transitional government in Somalia. He warned Horn of Africa leaders that development in the region would be difficult “without democratic institutions that respect human dignity and basic human rights.”