Somali opposition denies reports on Sudanese mediation
April 2, 2009 (MOGADSHU) – Somali opposition dismissed reports on Sudanese mediation to bridge differences between the new government and an Islamist opposition leader.
Somali media and Reuters reported that Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, leader of the Asmara-based Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, was in Khartoum to discuss his support to the President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
However Sheik Hassan Mahdi, a leading member of Hezb Al-Islam and close ally to Aways denied that Sheik Aweys told Radio Shebelle that the chairman of opposition alliance went to Sudan to discuss ways to resolve the Somali crisis but there was no reconciliation on the table.
He further disclosed that Sudan had dispatched a delegation to the Somali capital to hold talks on the current situation in the country and discuss plans settle the political crisis. Mahdi did not provide further details about this delegation nor on the discussed topics.
Al-Bashir led government has good relations with the different Islamist groups in the Horn. Khartoum was always in contacts with the formers factions Islamic courts which are not fighting each other.
Another Somali media, Mareeg website, said that Aweys met in Khartoum with the justice minister Sheik Abdelrahman Mohamoud Farah. But the source was unable to determine about what the two parties had talked.
Somali President Ahmed, a moderate Islamist, was elected president of the war-ravaged Horn of Africa state last January following UN-brokered reconciliation talks in Djibouti but faces a tough task to bring peace to a country wracked by civil war.
Islamist fighters including the hardline Shebab militia have waged battles against the government and its allies since before Ahmed came to power, vowing to fight until all foreign forces withdraw and sharia law is imposed.
Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991 when the regime of Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled, following which the country was plunged into anarchy and factional violence. Conflict and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of Somalis.
(ST)