Oct 19, 2006

Somaliland: Delegation Meets Somalia President in Ethiopia


According to Garowe Online Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf met with a delegation from Somaliland on his ongoing visit to the African Union capital.

ADDIS ABABA, Somalia Oct 18 (Garowe Online) - Confidential reports reaching Garowe Online news desk from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa confirm that Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf met with a delegation from the Somali breakaway Republic of Somaliland on his ongoing visit to the African Union capital.

President Yusuf’s meeting with Abdullahi Mohamed Du’ale, Somaliland’s recently-appointed foreign minister, was organized by Ethiopian officials, who invited both delegations to visit Addis Ababa.

Both delegations arrived in Addis Ababa on Saturday.

Sources said the two parties discussed new developments in Somalia, and specifically targeted ways to deal with the rise of Mogadishu’s Islamic Courts movement.

Ethiopian government mediators encouraged both Somali sides to reach common ground in dealing with the threat posed by the Islamist militia in control of Somalia’s traditional capital – Mogadishu – and much of the south-central regions of the country.

The Ethiopian government considers the Islamists a threat and has dispatched thousands of its military forces, as confirmed by witnesses, to back up President Yusuf’s interim government in the inland city of Baidoa.