African leaders are due meet in Nairobi on Wednesday to discuss ways of restoring normalcy in Somalia which has been rocked by violence for many years.
The leaders from Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti and Ethiopia are expected to meet leaders of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, many of its legislators, and members of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, an insurgent group that signed a cease-fire agreement with the transitional government in Djibouti on Sunday.
The meeting organized by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will also attempt to reconcile warring factions, including bringing the Al-Shabaab into the peace process.
The Nairobi Summit comes in the wake of a ceasefire agreement between Somalia's transitional government and one of the country's rebel factions.
The new accord which was signed in neighboring Djibouti sees Ethiopian troops leaving strategic areas of Somalia starting next month and has them replaced first by African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi, and then later by a joint "police force."
But significantly, the Somali leaders have also agreed to form a "unity government" including politicians from both sides.
There were fears that the IGAD initiative would overlap with the separate UN-led Somali peace process in Djibouti. The UN special envoy to Somalia has, however, lent his support to the Nairobi conference.
The Djibouti agreement, backed from the United Nations, calls for the insurgents to cooperate with the government.
But Somalia's radical insurgents, Shabaab, vowed to fight on despite the UN-sponsored deal for the Ethiopian pullback.
The African leaders will also attempt to reconcile warring factions, including bringing the Shabaab into the peace process.
With only nine months left before the mandate of their government expires, transitional government leaders attending the Nairobi meeting are expecting to be audited by the very neighbors that helped create it in 2004.
Somalia's government was created at an earlier IGAD conference in 2004 and at the opening of the conference on Tuesday, many of the group's members expressed frustration with the successes of the Somali government so far.
Speaking during the opening of the foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday, Moses Wetang'ula of Kenya criticized infighting within the government, and its inability to create effective government institutions and a new constitution.
"Little has been accomplished in last four years," said Wetangula, referring to the charter that expires in September next year.
The minister called on the United Nations to takeover Africa Union forces in Somalia as the Africa's body lacked funds to sustain the mission. He said Kenya wanted a peaceful, stable and prosperous Somalia that it can do business with.
"Time is now for all of us to realize we don't have more time to discuss Somalia crisis in capital cities. We should pick new momentum. Somalis have suffered for too long - 18 years," Wetangula said.
Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, who chairs IGAD's Council of Ministers, expressed similar concerns.
"Somalia's problems are not security but political. Ten months prior to the end of the transition period, the TFG has not managed to create any institutions of governance to speak of," said Mesfin.
"We decided to talk with the TFG leaders and the transitional federal parliamentarians in a frank manner and with the intention of making our alarm at the lack of progress in institution building and at the continuing feud within the leadership which in our view had contributed to the paralysis of the TFIs."
Somali's Foreign Minister Ismael Jama has admitted the 'paralysis' of the transitional federal government (TFG) and the lack of a ceasefire agreement for the country were responsible for the sinking peace efforts there.
"We have realized the need for a more cohesive TFG that is why we need the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to help find a win-win formula. There is need for a compromise on the situation," the Somali minister said.
IGAD Executive Secretary Mahboub Maalim said the security situation in Somalia was deteriorating and called for the strengthening of ongoing peace efforts in Djibouti. Fourteen previous attempts to ensure peace in Somalia, failed.
The Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia is divided as well, with some of its members rejecting the deal. Officials said，a delegation from the ARS, dominated by moderate Islamists and based in Eritrea, is expected to attend the meeting.
Al-Shabaab rebels have refused to participate in the talks and recognize the Djibouti accords until Ethiopian forces withdraw from the country, with one leading Islamist, Hassan Dahir Aweys, rejecting the June agreement.
The African Union has called on international community speed up efforts aimed at stabilizing the Horn of Africa nation.
The AU commissioner for peace and security Ramtane Lamamra said the UN Security Council should establish the international stabilization force to help pacify the war-torn nation.
"Time has come for a concrete effort on both the inter-Somalia level and that of the international community as a whole, with a view to moving decisively towards an all-inclusive national reconciliation and a comprehensive peace in Somalia," Lamamra told regional foreign ministers in Nairobi.
The AU currently has roughly 3,500 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers in the country.
But they have had little success in stopping an escalating insurgency that has turned Somalia into what UN officials have called Africa's worst humanitarian crisis.
Source:Xinhua
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