Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Somalia: Efforts Underway to Resolve Disagreement Between Somalia Leadership

The United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Nicholas Kay met with Somalia President Mohamud, Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed and Speaker of the Federal Parliament Mohamed Osman Jawari on Saturday (November 16) in another effort to broker a solution to disagreement between President Hassan Sheik Mahmoud and Prime Minister Abdiwali.

Also present were the European Union Special Representative for the Horn of Africa Alex Rondos, the EU Special Envoy to Somalia Michele Cervone d'Urso and the Danish, Italian, Swedish and UK Ambassadors to Somalia. Ambassador Kay urged the Somali leaders to find a solution that would allow the Federal Government to implement the Vision 2016 plan for Somalia's political transformation in a timely manner.

Their meetings came as the Federal Government and Somalia's international partners prepare for the first Ministerial-level High Level Partnership Forum in Copenhagen on November 19-20, to review progress and chart the way ahead for the implementation of the New Deal Somali Compact. The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Saturday (November 15) to underline its "deep concern" regarding "the worsening political clashes between the country's highest institutions".

The statement said "a government crisis on the eve of important international events would have extremely serious consequences for the country's stabilization process. It would undermine the results achieved thus far thanks to the support of the international community, and of Italy in particular." It described the political crisis as "incomprehensible" and added that it "could be easily resolved if the different actors showed a sense of responsibility and restored the political debate to the sphere of normal political argument".

Last week, the US State Department said it was concerned about "recent political turmoil" in Somalia and that plans for a no-confidence vote in Parliament did not serve the interests of the Somali people.

The US also said it would not attend the Copenhagen conference on Somalia next as political divisions were distracting Somalia's leadership. Officials from AMISOM troop contributing countries are also now making efforts to start mediation efforts to settle the problem. Another attempt to hold a vote of confidence on Prime Minister Abdiweli was prevented by MPs in the Parliament on Saturday (November 15). Speaker Jawari said that there will be initiatives to hold more discussions and to show a political maturity so that the disagreement can be solved.

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