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Nairobi peace talks face delay

Regionally sponsored peace and reconciliation talks on Somalia, originally scheduled to be held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in mid-April, are now more likely to take place at the end of that month, a senior Kenyan official has told IRIN. Ministers attending the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) meeting in Nairobi on 14 February agreed on the holding of the conference during the second half of April, according to a statement issued at their talks. The IGAD conference also agreed to set up a technical committee, comprising the states bordering Somalia - namely, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya - to prepare for the conference. However, the names of the Ethiopian and Djiboutian members of the committee had not yet been submitted to the Kenyan government, which is to convene the talks, Kenyan Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Muhammad Abdi Affey, told IRIN on Tuesday. "So far, Djibouti and Ethiopia have not forwarded the names of their people," he said. "We hope they will do so this week or early next week." The three countries represented on the committee were to coordinate their positions, draw up terms of reference for the conference and decide on participation, he added. Affey said he was hopeful that the talks, which are to bring together the Transitional National Government (TNG) and other Somali parties, would take place no later than the end of April. If they did not, he said, then "we should be able to make a conclusive statement as to why the talks did not take place". However, a regional expert told IRIN it was unlikely that the talks would take place in April. "The Ethiopians and Djiboutians have so far failed to name members to the committee, and it does not look likely they will do so between now and the end of April," he said. According to him, no planning has been done to prepare the ground for the talks since the last meeting in February. "You cannot expect to prepare for a conference as complex as one involving the issue of Somali reconciliation in such a short time" [as remains], he said. The best that could be expected would be for all the technical committee members to be in place by April, and "for them to set a new date for the conference", he added.

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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