Aydid warns of new faction fighting

In a separate statement carried by the independent Benaadir Radio, Husayn Aydid, reportedly called on the international community not to recognise the newly elected president. In a broadcast monitored by the BBC, he said such recognition could lead to renewed faction fighting in Somalia which has been without a central government during a decade of civil war and anarchy. “Mr Husayn Aydid was speaking in Yemen where he and his three fellow Mogadishu faction leaders have gone at the invitation of the Yemeni president,” the broadcast said. “Yemeni government officials have been trying to persuade the faction leaders to accept the new government. Husayn Aydid said that he and his fellow faction leaders would not accept the election of the president and his administration.” The radio station also reported, however, that the four faction leaders would meet President Abdiqasim Salad in the Yemeni capital, San’a, once he had returned from the UN Millennium Conference in New York. It said the meeting was agreed “to identify the roles they would play in the new government”.