Faction leader to attend Nairobi talks

Mogadishu faction leader Muse Sudi Yalahow, one of the most ardent opponents of the Transitional National Government (TNG), has said he will attend next month's Somali reconciliation conference in Nairobi, Kenya, news organisations reported.

The meeting will be convened by the regional body, Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in the Kenyan capital in late April. However, according to Agence France Presse (AFP), Yalahow said he would only attend the conference if there was prior consensus that no central government existed in Somalia.

The status of the TNG has been a bone of contention between the interim authority and the faction leaders ever since its inception in August 2000, in the Djibouti town of Arta. The TNG insists it is the legitimate and internationally recognised government of Somalia, and has declared its willingness to negotiate with those opposed to it. Conversely, the faction leaders have always argued that the TNG should come to the negotiating table as another faction.

One regional expert told IRIN on Thursday that this issue would "dog the upcoming conference, and may even prove to be its undoing if it is not handled carefully". "The organisers must find a way round it if they hope to have a meaningful outcome," he added.

Yalahow's conditional acceptance to attend the proposed conference comes in the wake of an announcement last week by leaders of the opposition Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) that they would also attend the Nairobi meeting.

In a press release, issued after three days of talks in the Ethiopian town of Dire Dawa, the group said the SRRC had "reaffirmed its commitment to participate in the upcoming national reconciliation conference to be held in Nairobi".