NAIROBI, June 30, 2006 – A joint African-Arab assessment mission is to travel to Somalia on Monday for consultations with the transitional government and other groups on how to restore peace and security in the country.

The decision to send a team made up of representatives from the African Union (AU), the Arab League and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) was reached following an AU/IGAD meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday and Thursday, a statement issued by IGAD said.

The assessment mission would "undertake political and technical consultations with the TFI (Somalia's Transitional Federal Institutions] leadership and other important players, including the Shari'ah (Islamic) Courts, business community, civil society and traditional leaders," the statement said.

The Transitional Federal Government (TFG), based in the town of Baidoa, northwest of the capital Mogadishu, favors a quick deployment of an African peacekeeping force to help it establish its authority in the country. However, the Union of Islamic Courts, which now controls Mogadishu and a number of other areas in the south, has expressed strong opposition to the deployment of foreign troops Somalia.

The TFG was created in Kenya in 2004 following lengthy reconciliation talks hosted by IGAD, which comprises Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

IGAD has urged the United Nations to revise an arms embargo imposed on Somalia in 1992, to enable the interim government to set up law-enforcement institutions with the help of an African peacekeeping force. Somalia has had no effective national government since 1991 when the administration led by Muhammad Siyad Barre was overthrown.

Source: IRIN

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