Warring factions in southern Somalia on Sunday agreed to end interclan fighting and promote security ahead of the lawless nation’s Parliament meeting this month for the first time on home soil.
Warlord Hassan Mohamed Nur Shatigudud agreed to end years of animosity with his chief rival Mohamed Ibrahim Habsade over the control of the regional capital of Baidoa, about 250km west of Mogadishu, which is expected to host Parliament on February 26.
Habsade took control of Baidoa after ousting Shatigudud in March last year, sparking an intermittent battle that has claimed dozens of lives and displaced thousands of people.
”We members of Digil-Mirifle sub-clan military commanders agreed to resolve differences and signed an agreement,” Shatigudud said from Wajid town, 340km west of Mogadishu, where the arch-foes had been holding peace talks since Friday.
”We also agreed the return of all property confiscated during the war to the rightful owners within the people in Bay and Bakol regions,” Shatigudud said, referring to regions in south-west Somalia.
The agreement was mediated by elders and religious leaders who play an integral part in the shattered Horn of Africa, which has been without a functional government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.
Officials welcomed the truce.
”The pacification of Baidoa was urgent because the town is hosting the Parliament meeting. Everybody should enjoy peace while attending,” said Saredo Abdalla, one of 275 lawmakers in the transitional federal National Assembly.
A deep rift over the seat of the government between a faction led by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi and another led by Adan and the warlords who control Mogadishu had prevented the lawmakers from meeting.
The split had raised fears that Somalia, which has been without a functioning central administration for nearly 15 years, could descend further into anarchy and chaos.
But under heavy international pressure the two camps agreed to a compromise last month whereby the Parliament will meet in Baidoa, which itself was the site of heavy fighting between the rival factions last year.
About 500 people, the lawmakers plus assorted foreign observers and dignitaries, are expected to attend the open-ended Parliament session and frantic efforts are now under way to ready the ill-prepared town for the guests.
There are no suitable facilities to house all the visitors or the Parliament session, which is to take place in a dilapidated former agricultural warehouse that currently lacks most of its roof, windows and doors. — Sapa-AFP