By Paul Schemm

Renewed international focus on Somalia and pervasive exhaustion with the incessant fighting in the war-torn country make for a rare opportunity for peace to succeed there, US Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer, seen here 2006, has said.(AFP/File/Jacques Collet)

CAIRO , April 05, 2007 (AFP) - Renewed international focus on Somalia and pervasive exhaustion with the incessant fighting in the war-torn country make for a rare opportunity for peace to succeed there, a US official said Thursday.

"I think the international community is focused on Somalia in a way that it hasn't been in the last 16 years, so I think the conditions are better this time around," Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told AFP.

Since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Siyad Barre, Somalia has been plunged into a violent civil war pitting rival clans and warlords against each other and featuring periodic famines and an unsuccessful US intervention in 1993.

"One thing that gives me hope is that at some point people get exhausted of killing each other," she added.

Frazer was in Cairo for a meeting of the Somalia "Contact Group" of diplomats from Europe, Africa, and the United States, which is seeking a solution to the ongoing chaos in the Horn of Africa nation.

She explained that in addition to heightened international attention, regional players now all agreed that extremists in Somalia needed to be isolated and efforts stepped up to achieve peace.

"There is hope for Somalia, Somalia is in Africa, the trendlines in Africa are positive to solve these crises and these conflicts," she said. "All of these countries in the Horn, east Africa, the Gulf have a common view.

"So I think they have a real opportunity."

Frazer said the consensus came when countries realized that the failed state was being used as a base by extremist Islamists from outside Somalia.

"It's clear that there were global jihadists operating in Mogadishu, I think that everybody had a wake up call," she said. "None of us understood the extent to which they had found safe haven and a base for operating in Somalia.

"We are all pretty much on the same page with Somalia," she added.

The scenario for restoring stability to the country involves first a ceasefire, followed by a reconciliation conference to be held April 16, paving the way for elections in 2009 when the transitional government's mandate ends.

An African Union (AU) peacekeeping force will be brought in to oversee the truce, though only about half of the anticipated 8,000-strong force has been pledged yet.

Sporadic gunfire was reported overnight, but Mogadishu was largely calm on Thursday, several days after heavy fighting between Ethiopian forces and Islamists left nearly 400 people dead.

Elders from Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan said they would collect bodies left in the streets, and were to meet with Ethiopian commanders on Thursday for further talks.

In December, the transitional government invited Ethiopian troops in after it was threatened by the Islamic Courts Union, an intervention Frazer described as unfortunate but necessary.

Ethiopian forces look set to remain until a robust African Union force is put in place -- something that cannot happen until a truce is reached.

Frazer expressed confidence in the AU's ability to handle the crisis with material and logistical support from the international community, despite their poor showing in Sudan's Darfur crisis.

"In Sudan, you have a government that has crippled the African Union force," she said, noting that they have prevented supplies and material from reaching the embattled force.

"They have created an environment in which it is difficult for them to succeed."

Source: AFP

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