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/ 31 October 2006
Negotiators scrambled on Tuesday to salvage peace talks aimed at averting all-out war between Somalia’s powerful Islamists and its weak government as the deeply divided sides both threatened to quit. In a last-ditch bid to keep the negotiations from collapsing even before they begin, international observers proposed Sudan as sole mediator.
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/ 30 October 2006
Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement on Monday accused neighboring Ethiopia of ”declaring war” on them, as they awaited the delayed resumption of peace talks in Sudan with the country’s weak government. While they and mediators prepared for the late arrival of a government delegation, the Islamists renewed accusations that Ethiopia had sent troops to Somalia.
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/ 30 October 2006
Peace talks aimed at averting all-out war between Somalia’s powerful Islamists and a weak government failed to start as scheduled on Monday, amid an apparent rift in the governmental delegation. A planned third round of negotiations, to be mediated by the Arab League and Kenya, had been due to begin on Monday morning.
Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Thursday refused to resign despite a mass exodus of Cabinet ministers and mounting criticism over the deployment of Ethiopian troops to protect his feeble 18-month-old administration. Government spokesperson Abdirahman Mohamed Nur Dinari said Gedi was instead working to replace the 36 ministers who have quit in the past week.
Six more Somali government ministers resigned on Tuesday citing the 18-month-old administration’s "unpopularity" officials said. The resignations of Culture Minister Abdi Hashi Abdullahi, Water and Natural Resources Minister Muhamoud Salat Nur and four assistant ministers brought to 24 the number of ministers who have quit the 102-member Cabinet.
An unknown gunman shot and killed Somalia’s constitutional and federal affairs minister in the provincial town of Baidoa on Friday, just a day after the Somali government was plunged into crisis when 18 ministers quit over its policies. Abdalla Derrow Issak was shot three times as he left a mosque after Friday prayers.
The supreme leader of Somalia’s increasingly powerful Islamist movement said on Tuesday that easing a 14-year-old United Nations arms embargo on the lawless nation would be a ”fatal mistake.” A day after a United States-created diplomatic body recommended ”urgent” modifications to the embargo, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys warned the move would plunge Somalia into new chaos.
After a week-long lull in fighting in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, war-weary residents cautiously ventured out on Sunday onto the city streets, amid further sabre-rattling by the Islamic courts and warlords’ alliance. Even with the near-complete control of Mogadishu by the Islamic courts, residents said a fresh battle was imminent.
Islamists holding much of lawless Somali capital Mogadishu declared war on ”infidels” on Wednesday, as a battered United States-backed warlord alliance they have been fighting girded for new clashes. With the two sides locked in a tense stand-off outside the alliance’s last remaining stronghold north of the city, elders frantically appealed for peace.
Heavily armed Islamic gunmen and fighters loyal to a United States-backed warlord alliance faced each other in a tense stand-off in Somalia on Tuesday after Muslim militia claimed control of the lawless capital, Mogadishu. A day after the Islamists declared victory, the city was fractured along clan lines, with remaining warlords vowing not to surrender.