New date set for talks

The much-postponed Somali reconciliation conference, brokered by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), has been rescheduled to convene on 15 October in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret, a Kenyan foreign ministry official told IRIN on Wednesday.

On 6 September, Kenyan Foreign Minister Marsden Madoka told an IGAD Council of Ministers meeting in Nairobi that the conference should open on 30 September.

"It is now agreed that the conference will take place no later than 15 October," said the Kenyan official. Delegates were expected to arrive on 12 October for registration.

At least 300 delegates from the various groups are expected to participate, an IGAD source told IRIN on Wednesday. However, the number of delegates allocated to each group had not yet been decided. "The [IGAD] technical committee will decide on that when they meet next week, but the idea is to be flexible and to bring on board as many stakeholders as possible," he said.

He confirmed that an invitation to attend the conference would be sent to the self-declared republic of Somaliland, but "whether they will attend or not is a different matter".

Last week, Somaliland's Information Minister Abdullahi Muhammad Du'ale told IRIN that IGAD was aware of Somaliland's position on the issue.

"We never attended past rounds of talks, we will not attend this one, and we will not attend future talks, which I am certain will follow this one," he stressed.

The conference, which is expected to bring together the Transitional National Government and other Somali groups, was originally scheduled to take place in April, but has been repeatedly postponed.