African leaders set to discuss security in Somalia

Source: Xinhua | 10-29-2008 16:19

By Daniel Ooko

NAIROBI, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- African leaders are due meet in Nairobi on Wednesday to discuss ways of restoring normalcy in Somalia which has been rocked by violence for many years.

The leaders from Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti and Ethiopia are expected to meet leaders of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, many of its legislators, and members of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, an insurgent group that signed a cease-fire agreement with the transitional government in Djibouti on Sunday.

The meeting organized by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will also attempt to reconcile warring factions, including bringing the Al-Shabaab into the peace process.

The Nairobi Summit comes in the wake of a ceasefire agreement between Somalia's transitional government and one of the country's rebel factions.

The new accord which was signed in neighboring Djibouti sees Ethiopian troops leaving strategic areas of Somalia starting next month and has them replaced first by African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi, and then later by a joint "police force."

But significantly, the Somali leaders have also agreed to form a "unity government" including politicians from both sides.

There were fears that the IGAD initiative would overlap with the separate UN-led Somali peace process in Djibouti. The UN special envoy to Somalia has, however, lent his support to the Nairobi conference.

The Djibouti agreement, backed from the United Nations, calls for the insurgents to cooperate with the government.

But Somalia's radical insurgents, Shabaab, vowed to fight on despite the UN-sponsored deal for the Ethiopian pullback.

The African leaders will also attempt to reconcile warring factions, including bringing the Shabaab into the peace process.