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Fact-finding mission meets UIC officials

[Somalia] Shaykh Sharif Shaykh Ahmed, chairman of the Union of Islamic Courts. [Date picture taken: June 2006] Shabelle Radio
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chairman of the Union of Islamic Courts.
    NAIROBI

    A joint fact-finding mission, comprising representatives of the European Union, African Union, Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the Arab League, on Thursday met leaders of the Union of the Islamic Courts (UIC), to discuss the situation in Somalia.

    The 24-member team is in Somalia to also assess the situation in the capital, Mogadishu, ahead of a proposed deployment of regional peacekeeping troops.

    A letter delivered to the team by Somali leaders, including top UIC members, business, civil society and traditional leaders, expressed their opposition to the deployment of foreign forces in the country, said UIC vice-chairman Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali.

    "We made it clear to them [the team] that we are opposed to any deployment of foreign forces in our country," Sheikh Ali said. "There is no need for them, since Mogadishu is now pacified."

    The UIC has taken control of Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia since 4 June, when they drove out a group of faction leaders who had controlled the city since 1991 after the fall of the Muhammad Siyad Barre administration.

    Sheikh Ali said that "bringing in foreign forces at this stage will only add to the problems of Somalia and will only worsen the situation".

    He said the international community could help by pushing and facilitating the expected talks on 15 July between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and UIC in Khartoum, capital of Sudan.

    The joint team on Wednesday met the leadership of the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs), in the town of Baidoa, 240km northwest of Mogadishu, Abdirahman Dinari, the spokesman for the TFG told IRIN.

    The team met President Abdullahi Yusuf, Prime Minister Ali Gedi and Speaker Sharif Hassan. "They discussed the new developments in Mogadishu and the overall security situation in the country," Dinari said.

    Dinari said the two sides agreed that the Khartoum talks "should be encouraged and speeded up to reach common ground".

    Officials of Somalia’s interim government and those of the UIC met on 23 June in Khartoum and agreed to mutually recognise each other and meet again on 15 July in a bid to bring stability to the war-torn country.

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    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

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