Leaders of Sanaa Forum meet in Yemen

Dec 28, 2005 (ADEN, Yemen) — The leaders of the Sanaa Forum, which groups the East African countries of Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan, as well as Yemen, were to meet Wednesday for talks on regional security and other issues, officials said.

The two-day summit is expected to be preceeded by a meeting of the foreign ministers of the four countries to “examine economic and commercial cooperation and the question of regional security,” Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kourbi told AFP.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as well his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Somalia’s transition President Abdullahi Yusof Ahmed will also “put in place a (durable) structure for the ‘Sanaa Forum’,” he added.

Kourbi said that member states should play a “common security role in the regions waters to prevent all kinds of sabotage and maritime piracy and enhance stability.”

The Sanaa Forum was was set up in October 2002 by Yemen, Sudan and Ethiopia. Somalia joined the group in December last year.

The meeting in the southern Yemeni port comes at a time of escalating tension between Sudan and its western neighbour Chad following an accusation by Ndjamena that Khartoum was harbouring and supporting Chadian rebels.

However Sudan has also been enoying a sudden rapprochement with Eritrea after years of strained ties.

(AFP/ST)