Update report 5. On 30 and 31 October, the President of Somalia visited Kismaayo for the first time since taking office in September 2012. The visit was followed by a reconciliation conference in Mogadishu between representatives of the Federal Government and the Juba Interim Administration, held from 3 to 6 November. Militia leaders opposed to the Interim Administration also participated. The parties agreed to cease hostilities, work towards the reintegration of militias and jointly combat Al-Shabaab. There were no provisions for power-sharing arrangements in the Interim Administration, which the opposition had initially demanded. The next reconciliation conference is planned to be held in Kismaayo. 6. On 31 August, in the town of Baidoa (Bay), the Council of Traditional Elders from the Digil and Mirifle clans issued a statement in which it described the Addis Ababa agreement as unconstitutional and claimed that it did not take into consideration the aspirations of the community. The statement reflected the widely shared perception among the Digil and Mirifle populations that they had not been adequately represented in the Addis Ababa negotiations. This was followed by a four-day conference in Baidoa, organized by the Council, which began on 18 September and brought together the Speaker of the Federal Parliament, Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari, parliamentarians, clan and religious leaders, regional and district authorities, civil society and members of the diaspora. In the resulting communiqué, the conference participants reiterated the Council’s rejection of the Addis Ababa agreement and called, instead, for a conference to establish a six-region federal state comprising the six southern regions of Somalia, including alt juba /medal juba and Gedo. In the following weeks, the Council engaged in outreach aimed at gaining the support of leaders of other clans in the six regions. 7. Separately, tensions persisted between the Federal Government and the Puntland authorities since the decision by the latter to suspend all cooperation and relations in August. In addition to accusing the federal authorities of tampering with the Provisional Constitution and distributing international aid inequitably, the Administration of Puntland repeatedly accused them of not being committed to federalism and a decentralized system of governance. 8. Meanwhile, preparations for the upcoming indirect presidential elections in Puntland, scheduled for 8 January 2014, have been stepped up. A number of candidates have declared their intention to stand. Clan elders have begun the process of selecting the 66 members of the Puntland parliament who will, in turn, elect a president and vice-president in January 2014. 9. On 24 September, the Cabinet ministers of “Somaliland” approved a budget for 2014 of $212 million. More than 51 per cent of the budget was allocated to security sector activities. On 19 September, the three official parties in “Somaliland”, its “national” electoral commission and the Government reached an agreement to complete. UPDATED BY isack raage ali
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 07:35:58 +0000
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