Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mogadishu (Agenzia Fides)- Uganda has announced a new peace initiative for Somalia while from the tormented Horn of Africa country reports of fresh clashes continue to arrive. Ngoma Ngime, special envoy of Ugandan president Yoweni Museveni, said his government is facilitating talks between Somalia's transition government and the opponents at home and abroad.
Recently in Eritrea an alliance of opponents to the transition government was formed supported by Ethiopian troops. A situation which would seem to be a sort of “proxy war” in Somalia between Asmara and Addis Ababa. But the situation in Somalia is far more complex. Somalia is divided in three. In the north Somaliland, which in the 1990s declared independence from the rest of the country, the central coastal area Puntland, which claims autonomy but seems to have no intention of declaring secession, the thirdly the south, controlled by the fragile transition government, threatened by armed gangs which carry out daily attacks in the capital Mogadishu.
One of the latest victims, killed with his body guards on 5 October in an ambush in Mogadishu, is Ahmed Jalow Adow, former head of intelligence of Siad Barre, dictator deposed in 1991.
But what most worries local observers is growing tension between Somaliland and Puntland. In the first few days of October 10 people were killed in clashes in the area of Sool, on the border between the two Somali regions, where there has been tension for years over control of water rich areas (see Fides 30 October 2004).
Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has his power base in Puntland (he is also the president of this province), where there is progressive political fragmentation, similar to that in the rest of Somalia. The weakening of the President's power base, strengthens his opponents in his own government, particularly Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi. These two principal members of the transition government, besides being of divers clan, argue over control of local petroleum resources, still to be explored and worked. The President reached an agreement with a Chinese company, whereas the Premier made a pact with and Indonesia-Kuwait consorzio. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 8/10/2007 righe 30 parole 384)
