Share & more
Foreign ministers of member states of the regional grouping, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), were meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Friday to discuss the Somali peace talks.
They were expected "to assess the overall progress" of the talks, an IGAD source close to the meeting told IRIN. Among other issues, the ministers "will consult with Somali leaders and encourage them to implement the 29 January Safari Park Agreement, and move the process forward," he said.
The leaders of the various Somali groups on 29 January signed what was described at the time as "a landmark breakthrough" agreement on a number of contentious issues that had earlier been plaguing the peace talks. Since then, however, a number of those leaders have expressed reservations about the agreement and called for the postponement of the third phase of talks until "contentious issues" are resolved.
The IGAD-sponsored talks began in October 2002 in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret, but were moved to Nairobi in February 2003. They have been dogged by wrangles over issues such as the interim charter, the number of participants in the talks and the selection of future parliamentarians.
Meanwhile, a number of leaders walked out of the talks and have been holding meetings in the town of Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu, to consider convening a parallel conference in Somalia. Shaykh Adan Madobe, the leader of a Rahanweyn Resistance Army faction and one of the leaders attending the Jowhar meeting, told IRIN last week that they were looking for solutions to the difficulties facing the Nairobi talks, "but if that proves impossible, we will hold a peace conference inside Somalia".
The IGAD foreign ministers are also expected to make a decision on a planned launch of the third and final phase of the talks. "After their consultations with the leaders, they [ministers] will then decide on the launch of the Transitional Federal Charter", which would herald the final phase of the talks, another IGAD source told IRIN.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
