UN mission chief welcomes Somali Prime Minister's decision to convene ministers

[Camel Mlik]

UN mission chief welcomes Somali Prime Minister's decision to convene ministers

- Friday, September 16, 2005 at 15:57

 

The head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) today welcomed the Somali Prime Minister's invitation to cabinet members, now located in two different towns, to meet in the country's capital, Mogadishu, as the war-shattered country emerges from years of functioning without a central government.

 

In recent months, President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi moved to Jowhar, 90 kilometres from the capital, citing a lack of security in Mogadishu, while Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden and some Cabinet members and Parliamentarians stayed in Mogadishu.

 

Mr. Gedi's letter of invitation to Cabinet Ministers of the Transitional Federal Government for consultations and a meeting followed months of international effort, led by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), François Lonsény Fall, to persuade the parties to hold a dialogue and resolve differences within the Transitional Federal Institutions.

 

Expressing the hope that the Council of Ministers' meeting would be followed by a full session of the Parliament, in accordance with the Transitional Federal Charter, Mr. Fall said: "I encourage the Prime Minister to pursue this initiative, which is in the spirit of fostering dialogue within the Transitional Federal Institutions."

 

Earlier this month six UN staff members were flown to Wajid in south-western Somalia and seven were relocated temporarily in Nairobi, Kenya, as tensions built around Jowhar. Mr. Fall said then that there could be no military solution to the divisions that have persisted in Somalia since the collapse of the central government in 1991. "The suffering of the population has continued at unacceptable cost to all Somalis for more than 14 years," he said.

 

Source: Relief Web

 

 

 

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