JEDDAH, 22 August 2003 — An official from the European Union has disclosed that the EU is undertaking a feasibility study on its plan to rehabilitate a road linking the northwestern region of breakaway Somaliland to neighboring Ethiopia, according to an EU business website.
“The study covers 887 kilometers (550 miles) of road network from Somaliland’s Berbera port to the Ethiopian border town of Togwejale,” EU official Pascal Joanne said recently.
He said French consultancy firm Louis Berger, which started the study nine months ago, is to submit its findings to the European Union in two months and will form the basis for the EUropean body’s approval to release funds for the second phase.
“The commission will come up with a decision to advance the project into feasibility and designing stage, based on preliminary assessments made by Louis Berger,” Joanne added.
The EU last week shipped 15,000 tons of relief food supplies to Ethiopia’s hungry through Berbera port in Somaliland.
According to international aid agencies, more than 100,000 tones of food are expected to be shipped through the same route in the coming weeks.
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A large group of Somali expatriates in Jeddah remembered the death of prominent Somali traditional elder Sultan Ahmed Hurre here on Tuesday.
In memory of his death, they wore T-shirts with a picture of Sultan emblazoned on the chest, and the legend: “Who killed Sultan Hurre?”
Sultan Hurre was killed a year ago in northeastern region of Puntland.
Hussein Khalif, a member of one of the Somali group, told Arab News that Sultan Hurre was shot at point blank range by the bodyguards of warlord Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed at the village of Kalabeyr in Puntland.
“Sultan was active in the fledgling peace process in the northeastern regions of Somalia. Many believe that the order for the assassination was given directly by warlord Ahmed to eliminate local opposition,” He said.
“He was also one of the traditional leaders who opposed the prolongation of Ahmed’s unconstitutional mandate in August 2001 as a leader of the regional administration of Puntland,” he added.
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Somalia’s Transitional National Government (TNG) has set out conditions for its return to the peace talks in Kenya, press reports said.
The TNG conditions are that the members of parliament must be selected by traditional clan elders in consultation with faction leaders, Somali people must be given overall control of the peace talks with the international community playing a facilitating role only, and the delegates from the breakaway Somaliland should also participate in the ongoing talks.
The TNG has also proposed to set up a committee of legal and constitutional experts to draft the charter.
Kenyan ambassador to Somalia, Muhammad Afey, had traveled to the capital Mogadishu and asked TNG President Abdi Qassim Salad to return to the peace talks.
Salad pulled out of the talks late last month, saying they were leading to the dismemberment of Somalia.
The ten-month long talks are being sponsored by the East African body of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
