Abdillahi Yusuf Urges For Arab Peacekeepers- Says Al Qaeda Active In Somalia

By Faysal Gabanow

ADDIS ABABA , Ethiopia, 22 September 2007 - Somali president Abdillahi Yusuf appealed for Arabian-African peacekeepers, under U.N. aegis to be deployed in Somalia to replace the outgoing Ethiopian Troops. The President made his call in Saudi Arabia where his government’s high officials, (PM Ali Mohamed Gedi, the Parliament speaker, Adem Mohamed Nur) and the Chairman of the Reconciliation Committee of Somalia, Ali Mahi Mohamed reached last week in response to an invitation offered by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to host the closing session of the national reconciliation conference (NRC) of Somalia.

In the session held in Jeddah, the TFG officials and 350 short listed former participants of the NRC signed the final resolutions of the conference. The delegates included tribal elders, representatives of Somali factions and civil society groups.

The National Reconciliation Conference was concluded last month in Mogadishu with the outcome of eight points containing resolution that called for the cessation of hostility, property restoration, natural resource sharing, and endorsed free and fair nation-wide elections in 2009.

Though invited, the opposition of the Interim Government that are based in Asmara has not participated in Mogadishu Reconciliation conference, the first domestic conference, but instead held a parallel conference in Asmara that led to the establishment of an alliance they said was aimed to ‘liberate Somalia and fight against Ethiopian troops. Islamists’ executive leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Hasan was elected as the chairman of the alliance.

“Al qaeda cells, comprising of Somali nationals and foreigners, who were trained with Usama Bin Ladin and also in Somalia are operating in the country” Somali President Abdillahi Yusuf said. He also said that his government is committed to weep out the terrorists in his country, according to Okaz Arabic newspaper.

US special envoy to Somalia, Ambassador John Yates welcomed the deployment of Arab peacekeepers in Somalia. The newly appointed Ambassador, and US ambassador to Kenya, dismissed the recent alliance of Somali opposition in Asmara. “What was most evident is the isolation of the people in Asmara and their inability to draw together a broad-based or inclusive group” Reuters quoted Michael Ranneberger, US ambassador to Kenya as saying.

Source: The Sub-Saharan Informer