By Wangui Kanina
NAIROBI, Sept 5 (Reuters) – East African leaders hastily turned a high-level summit on Somalia into informal talks on Tuesday, after rival powers in the lawless nation cut a deal to join their military forces in a separate diplomatic effort.
The summit had been expected to push forward long-delayed plans to send African peacekeepers to Somalia and to wrest the diplomatic lead on solving the country’s political crisis from the Arab League.
But late on Monday, delegates from Somalia’s interim government and the Islamists now controlling critical parts of the country agreed in principle to eventually join their military forces if they can agree on sharing political power.
The pact stressed that neither side would accept military interference inside Somalia by neighbouring countries.
It was not immediately clear which factions of the frequently divided Somali government supported the deal.
The pact, reached under Arab League mediation in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, appeared to throw the Nairobi summit called by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) into confusion.
IGAD led two years of peace talks in Kenya that culminated in the birth of the interim government in late 2004.
Host Kenya issued a terse statement after news of Monday’s military agreement saying: “Due to the nature of discussions, today’s extraordinary meeting of IGAD has been transformed into a forum for informal consultations.”
It offered no further details.
BREWING CRISIS
Somalia has been torn apart by factions fighting for control of the Horn of Africa nation, which has become synonymous with anarchy since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and tore Somalia into shreds.
The latest crisis began in June when Somali Islamists fought their way to power by defeating U.S.-backed warlords in Mogadishu and capturing a key swathe of southern Somalia — including the country’s air and sea ports.
Experts fear the conflict could spill across Somalia’s borders and destabilise east Africa. Washington fears an Islamist controlled Somalia could provide a haven for militants who could threaten U.S. interests in the region.
The Islamists, whose power now eclipses that of the government, vehemently oppose peacekeepers and say Somalia can handle its own security.
The Khartoum deal, diplomats said, and the lack of a waiver of a U.N. arms embargo appeared to have frustrated a push by Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to get the troops deployed quickly.
“These factors suggest that it’s the IGAD meeting that’s put in the doldrums,” a diplomat involved in Somalia said.
IGAD abruptly switched the venue of the talks from a downtown conference centre to a closed session at Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki’s official State House residence.
Kibaki was joined by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, while the other IGAD member states Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Uganda sent lower-level officials or none at all.
PROTESTS
In Mogadishu on Tuesday, the Islamists organised demonstrations in which hundreds protested the IGAD peacekeeping plan, viewed by many Somalis as a bid by rival Ethiopia to infringe on Somalia’s sovereignty.
Yusuf’s Ethiopian-backed government, without money to field its own real army, supports the IGAD plan to help it get out of its sole outpost in Baidoa — and from under the protection of Ethiopia.
Addis Ababa, which has denied witness reports that it has troops in Somalia, has promised to crush any attack on the government by the militarily superior Islamists.
(Additional reporting by Katie Nguyen in Nairobi, Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu, Opheera McDoom in Khartoum)
NAIROBI, Sept 5 (Reuters) – East African leaders hastily turned a high-level summit on Somalia into informal talks on Tuesday, after rival powers in the lawless nation cut a deal to join their military forces in a separate diplomatic effort.
The summit had been expected to push forward long-delayed plans to send African peacekeepers to Somalia and to wrest the diplomatic lead on solving the country’s political crisis from the Arab League.
But late on Monday, delegates from Somalia’s interim government and the Islamists now controlling critical parts of the country agreed in principle to eventually join their military forces if they can agree on sharing political power.
The pact stressed that neither side would accept military interference inside Somalia by neighbouring countries.
It was not immediately clear which factions of the frequently divided Somali government supported the deal.
The pact, reached under Arab League mediation in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, appeared to throw the Nairobi summit called by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) into confusion.
IGAD led two years of peace talks in Kenya that culminated in the birth of the interim government in late 2004.
Host Kenya issued a terse statement after news of Monday’s military agreement saying: “Due to the nature of discussions, today’s extraordinary meeting of IGAD has been transformed into a forum for informal consultations.”
It offered no further details.
BREWING CRISIS
Somalia has been torn apart by factions fighting for control of the Horn of Africa nation, which has become synonymous with anarchy since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and tore Somalia into shreds.
The latest crisis began in June when Somali Islamists fought their way to power by defeating U.S.-backed warlords in Mogadishu and capturing a key swathe of southern Somalia — including the country’s air and sea ports.
Experts fear the conflict could spill across Somalia’s borders and destabilise east Africa. Washington fears an Islamist controlled Somalia could provide a haven for militants who could threaten U.S. interests in the region.
The Islamists, whose power now eclipses that of the government, vehemently oppose peacekeepers and say Somalia can handle its own security.
The Khartoum deal, diplomats said, and the lack of a waiver of a U.N. arms embargo appeared to have frustrated a push by Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to get the troops deployed quickly.
“These factors suggest that it’s the IGAD meeting that’s put in the doldrums,” a diplomat involved in Somalia said.
IGAD abruptly switched the venue of the talks from a downtown conference centre to a closed session at Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki’s official State House residence.
Kibaki was joined by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, while the other IGAD member states Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Uganda sent lower-level officials or none at all.
PROTESTS
In Mogadishu on Tuesday, the Islamists organised demonstrations in which hundreds protested the IGAD peacekeeping plan, viewed by many Somalis as a bid by rival Ethiopia to infringe on Somalia’s sovereignty.
Yusuf’s Ethiopian-backed government, without money to field its own real army, supports the IGAD plan to help it get out of its sole outpost in Baidoa — and from under the protection of Ethiopia.
Addis Ababa, which has denied witness reports that it has troops in Somalia, has promised to crush any attack on the government by the militarily superior Islamists.
(Additional reporting by Katie Nguyen in Nairobi, Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu, Opheera McDoom in Khartoum)
Source: Reuters, Sept 5, 2006
