The newly established African Peace and Security Council (PSC) has given the Somali factions a July 31 deadline to end their peace talks in Nairobi, press reports said yesterday.
The pan-continental African Union on Tuesday launched the body as a robust guarantor of stability in Africa.
The PSC warned Somali faction leaders to reach an agreement on peace and national reconciliation by the new deadline or face selective sanctions. The organization said sanctions were the only salvation for the future of Somalia. The PSC has also stated that it was gravely concerned about conflicts in other parts of Africa.
Meanwhile, Djibouti’s Foreign Minister Ali Abdi Farah has told to reporters that the PSC would send a peacekeeping force to Somalia if the Somali leaders form a national government at the ongoing peace talks in the Kenyan capital. He said the African troops could help stabilize the war-torn country by disarming the militias.
The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which sponsors the Nairobi talks, has also warned the faction leaders against derailing the final phase of the talks, IGAD ministerial facilitation committee said in a statement.
The ministers in their statement issued after a two-day meeting said any leader who abstains from the talks would not be allowed to hold the peace process hostage. The statement further warned that punitive measures would be taken against those who try to obstruct the finalization of an agreement.
Robert Hauser, the country director of UN World Food Program (WFP), has pointed out that Somalia produces about 30 percent of its food requirements.
“Unfortunately, the country has no statistics, no central government. But it has an extremely dynamic market to the extent that you see one thing one day and it is gone the next because it is sold,” he said.
The standard estimates refer to the situation before the war. Somalia produced about 30 percent of its requirement of 700,000 tons of cereals, depending on the rains in the agricultural areas. The rest of the food needs to be imported or to be replaced by other food. The rural population can overcome part of the shortage with milk and meat, but the urban people cannot. So there have to be some imports, especially in the north where rice is the staple, Hauser said.
Britain has pledged to help Somalia’s northern breakaway enclave of Somaliland fight terrorism, officials in the country said yesterday.
The self-styled Somaliland has repeatedly blamed killings of foreign aid workers on a local group of militants.
A visiting British Foreign Office delegation signed an agreement this week pledging greater support on security and counter-terrorism, Somaliland’s Foreign Affairs Minister Edna Aden said.
“This delegation has dealt with issues related to the fight against terrorism and security,” she said.
“The government of the UK will not only train Somaliland in counter terrorism, but will also assist in the development of the security machinery here.”
