Facing a huge surge in the number of Somali refugees fleeing unrest, Kenya on Friday renewed appeals for dialogue between Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement and weak government to prevent conflict.
A day after the leader of the Somali transitional government said the Islamists were tools of al-Qaeda and had created hit squads to kill him and others, Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki urged the two sides to come together.
”The situation in that country is posing new challenges that need to be addressed by the people of Somalia, with support from the region and the international community as a whole,” he said.
”I … appeal to the government of Somalia to engage the Islamic courts in constructive dialogue in order to find a solution to the challenges facing their country,” Kibaki said.
Kibaki’s comments, made in a speech to mark Kenyatta Day, came amid international efforts to salvage peace talks between the two sides, a third round of which set for later this month is now in jeopardy.
They also came as the United Nations has reported a major influx of Somalis fleeing to Kenya to escape unrest and possible open war at home, raising concerns among Kenyan officials about their ability to cope.
More than 30 000 Somalis have arrived in Kenya since the beginning of the year and the numbers have soared since the Islamists seized Mogadishu in June and then rapidly expanded to control most of southern and central Somalia.
The UN refugee agency, which is already caring for nearly 160 000 Somalis at camps in north-east Kenya, says arrivals for 2006 may reach 50 000, seriously straining its resources.
In addition, a Somali child at the Dadaab refugee camp has become Kenya’s first known victim of polio in more than two decades and is infected with a strain thought to have come from southern Somalia.
Somalia has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, which plunged the country into full-scale anarchy and bloodletting. — Sapa-AFP