By Vanessa Rozier

Addis Ababa, Jan 31, 2007 – Somalian President Abdillahi Yusuf took the first step toward a more stable and peaceful nation yesterday by consenting to a National Reconciliation Conference.

Somalia is a part of the Horn of Africa, sharing its borders with Ethiopia and Kenya, and has been unstable since 1991.

Somalia gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, and in 1991, warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre, leaving the nation unstable for years to come. That same year, the nation split into the northern Somaliland and the southern United Somali Congress, marking the beginning of a long-term civil war. The United Nations sent troops to help with the redevelopment of the conflicted country for three years.

Due to excessive casualties, the United Nations withdrew its troops in 1995, but continued to send food and aid. Somalia’s southwestern region declared itself autonomous in 2002, and in 2006 the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) took control of the nation and the Juba Valley Association seceded.

According to Jendayi Frazer, a U.S. diplomat for Africa, Ethiopian troops are beginning to withdraw, leaving a “power vacuum” for the ICU to potentially take advantage of. The United States will offer airlift support to the African forces who have stepped in to help secure Somalia.

The upcoming reconciliation talks will allow for a commitment from the United States, the African Union peacekeeping force and the European Union to support peace efforts. It will also determine if Somalia will receive monetary support – $40 million from the United States and $20 million from the European Union – and 8,000 troops from the African Union currently comprised of Uganda, Nigeria and Malawi.

According to CNN, President Yusuf said, “We would like to negotiate with all Somalis who would like peace, but we cannot negotiate with those who are intent on violence and terrorism.”

The ill-intentioned persons to whom the President is referring are members of the Islamic Movement or Union of Islamic Courts – an organization that threatened to take control of Somalia and confined the interim government to one farming town. Islamic followers in Somalia refuse to attend the conference as long as troops from Ethiopia, their neighbors to the west, are present.

The United States views this Islamic group as the organization that supported the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people. According to Fox News, Osama bin Laden claims Somalia as a battleground in his war on the West.

Source: The Hilltop online