Somalia’s foreign minister on Saturday said the embattled government was in direct contact with extremist insurgents to try and end a deadly spiral of violence.
“The government maintains its plans for reconciliation and we have started talking to the rebel groups of Hezb al-Islam and the Shebab,” Ali Ahmed Jama told reporters in Mogadishu.
“Some of them have already joined the government and we hope our mission for broader reconciliation will be fruitful soon,” the minister, who was appointed last month, added without elaborating.
His comments come after a relative lull in the fighting that has devastated the capital since the Shebab, an al-Qaeda-inspired group, and the more political Hezb al-Islam movement launched a
military offensive on May 7.
“We are working closely with community groups and the country will be under government control soon,” Jama said.
Both insurgent groups have vowed to continue their struggle against the internationally-backed transitional federal government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed until the departure of African
Union (AU) peacekeepers.
Since being elected president in January, the young Islamist cleric has failed to assert his authority on the troubled Horn of Africa nation and owed his survival chiefly to the AU contingent’s
protection. – AFP