China Donates Fund for Somali Peace Talks

China on Thursday donated 100,000 US dollars to facilitate the last phase of Somali National Reconciliation Conference after an appeal from the mediator, the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the United Nations.

"We sincerely hope that the donation could help IGAD somewhat relieve its financial burden and focus on the Somali peace process, which could move smoothly and get to its final destination," Guo Chongli, Chinese ambassador to Kenya, said at the handover ceremony in Nairobi.

According to the Chinese ambassador, 100,000 dollars will be granted to the Somali National Reconciliation Conference through the IGAD Secretariat in Nairobi, as the contribution from the Chinese side to the Somali peace process.

Meanwhile, Kenyan Minister for Foreign Affairs Chirau Ali Mwakwere said that this was a very important occasion, for it "has a clear and direct demonstration of the concerns that the rest of the world has on the peace process in Somalia."

Mwakwere, who is also the chairman of IGAD Ministerial Facilitation Committee on Somali Peace Process, said that China's donation would "go a long way in ensuring that the Somali peace process get completed as scheduled."

Somalia has been without a functioning government since the toppling of the regime of Mohamed Said Barre in 1991 and IGAD announced last week that Somalia's proposed transitional federal government will be inaugurated on July 30 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Since October 2002, faction leaders have begun the Somali National Reconciliation Conference in Kenya under the auspices of IGAD, a seven-member regional group in East Africa, consisting of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia.