Interim government promises to end divisions

Senior officials of the Somali interim government on Monday promised to end disagreements that have paralysed their administration, following a visit by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) to Somalia, François Lonseny Fall.

Fall, who left Jowhar on Tuesday after a two-day visit, met President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi. They discussed the current impasse in the Transitional Federal Institutions over the location of the government within Somalia following its relocation from Nairobi, Kenya.

Following the meeting on Monday, Gedi expressed the government’s willingness to work with the UN to resolve the ongoing difficulties, the UN News Service reported.

An estimated 100-plus legislators and members of the government - led by Speaker Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden - have chosen to operate from the capital, Mogadishu, while Yusuf, Gedi and their supporters have temporarily based themselves in Jowhar, 90 km north of the capital, on the grounds that security in Mogadishu remained tenuous.

In a report to the UN Security Council in June, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said: "There is an urgent need for Somali leaders to enter into a serious dialogue in search for a consensus on the important issues regarding relocation."

Fall was expected to visit Mogadishu later in the week where he would meet Aden and other cabinet officials and civil society groups.

"We are looking forward to his arrival and he will have our support. We will welcome anyone who will contribute to the furthering of the reconciliation process," Aden told IRIN on Monday from Mogadishu.

"We are prepared to compromise on anything except the Charter [interim constitution]. We must all adhere to the letter and sprit of the Charter,” he added.

Somalia has had no operational government for the past 14 years, following the collapse in 1991 of the government of President Muhammad Siyad Barre. Civil war erupted in the country soon after Barre was toppled, as various factions and rival warlords fought for power.

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development - made up of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia - sponsored two years of peace talks between the various Somali clans and factions, in October 2004, culminating in the establishment of the interim government in Nairobi.