JEDDAH, 14 March 2003 — Somali Interior Minister Dahir Muhammad Sheikh has been admitted to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSHRC) here. Somali Consul General Muhammad Elmi Omer told Arab News yesterday that the minister was being treated at KFSHRC for “minor ailments” after he was flown in here last week. Omer noted that the Saudi government had extended many similar medical services to Somali leaders in the past.
***
The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Maxwell Gaylard, said in a statement published yesterday that fighting in southwestern town of Baidoa had interrupted relief activities for more than eight months and that living conditions in the town had deteriorated.
Since last July, Baidoa has been a scene of fighting between two rival factions of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA). A power struggle and division within the senior ranks of the RRA had caused the fighting. “I am gravely concerned for the welfare of the people of Baidoa. Since the fighting erupted, access to the area has been extremely limited and civilians have been displaced several times over. Aid activities ranging from food distribution to health services have been seriously disrupted,” Gaylard added.
***
Somalia’s Transitional National Government (TNG) on Wednesday accused Ethiopia of sending military forces with heavy military hardware into some regions in south Somalia. According to media reports, the TNG said that it will not take part in the ongoing peace talks in Kenya while Ethiopia is a member of the technical committee organizing the peace talks.
“We hope that the international community appreciates our position that mediation by the Ethiopian government between the TNG and the opposition is neither reasonable nor fruitful. While Ethiopia is part of the mediation group, the TNG will not participate,” the TNG statement said.
The technical committee organizing the peace talks comprises representatives from Ethiopia, Djibouti Kenya. East African body of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) had mandated the three countries to broker the peace process. Ethiopia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Tekede Alemu, told the BBC that the TNG allegations were completely false. He denied that Ethiopia was massing troops on the border. He also rebutted an earlier charge that some Ethiopian forces had already crossed into Somalia.
