Peace talks resume after five-day break

The Somali national reconciliation conference reconvened in the Mbagathi suburb of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday after a five-day hiatus, according to a member of its organising committee.

"The suspension of the proceedings came at the request of the participants and our partners [donor countries] who said they wanted a break to give time to bring everyone on board," said James Kiboi of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) technical committee which is steering the talks.

"Some delegates and our partners asked for a postponement to try and bring on board the leaders who are not here," Kiboi, the committee's political and diplomatic liaison officer, told IRIN. Also requesting the postponement was "a splinter group of civil society" who wanted constitutional experts to study the draft charter, he added.

Kiboi said the technical committee had "deployed every effort to convince those leaders who are absent to return to the talks".

Among those absent from the talks are the president of the Transitional National Government (TNG) Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, prominent Mogadishu-based faction leader Muse Sudi Yalahow, and the leader of the Kismayo-based Juba Valley Alliance (JVA) Col Barre Adan Hirale.

"We are hopeful that all will return to the peace talks, since all of their concerns have been addressed," Kiboi told IRIN. "Everybody is happy, including our partners, and the talks are back on course in full throttle."

However a source close to Yalahow told IRIN that "none of the issues we raised have been addressed satisfactorily". "There is nothing to go back for," he said.

The source added that Yalahow was holding talks in Somalia with "like-minded leaders to consult on the way forward".

"He is already in [the southern port town of] Kismayo talking to the JVA and will soon start talking to the TNG once he returns to Mogadishu," the source said.

Yalahow left Nairobi on Saturday after quitting the peace talks two weeks ago.