Somali splinter group now warns president

KEN RAMANI and REUTERS

As the Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf left last night for Algiers, Algeria, to attend an Arab League Heads of State Summit, a group of MPs were plotting to relocate to Mogadishu without him.

Some of the MPs who spoke to The Standard revealed they were to attend a meeting last night in a Nairobi hotel to draw the programme for their relocation "with or without President Yusuf".

The MPs said once they start leaving Nairobi any day this week, they will give Yusuf 45 days to join them in Mogadishu failure to which they will assume he has relinquished his position and "act accordingly".

The Speaker of Somalia Parliament, Mudane Shariif Hassan Sheikh Aden is the one sources say was leading the renegade MPs.

Aden was on Friday blamed by Somalia prime minister Ghedi Mohammed for having called for voting on two motions that led to the fracas at Grand Regency hotel.

Those planning to relocate are allied to a group opposed to the involvement of Igad front-line nations in peacekeeping missions in Somalia.

They are expected to unveil their programme today afternoon.

The head of the Presidential Press Service of Somalia Mr Yusuf Baribari however said yesterday the MPs’ action is outside the coordination monitoring committee’s (CMC) framework of action.

"It’s the CMC that is working out the details of re-location alongside Igad Council of ministers," said Baribari during a telephone interview.

He confirmed being aware of the relocation plan by the renegade group but declined to comment further.

He insisted that the transitional government of Somalia was working closely with Igad to ensure logistical support is in place before relocating.

Meanwhile, the Somali MPs and a Cabinet minister arrested on Saturday over last Thursday’s brawl have been released.

Confirming the development, Kenya’s envoy to Somalia Affey Mohammed said they were released on bond.

They were arrested after two of their colleagues who were injured on Thursday complained to the Kenyan police

And East African states have attacked the influential International Crisis Group (ICG) and other unnamed advocacy groups for creating confusion in the region and threatening Somalia’s peace process.

In an unusual move, ministers from east African peace body Igad said reports by ICG, a conflict prevention organisation, were damaging to the African sub-region.

Igad members states include Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. "The position and advice that the International Crisis Group (ICG) has been giving has resulted in damages to the region and to the peace process in Somalia," said an Igad statement received by Reuters today.

"While condemning the activities of these groups, (Igad) called upon the Somali people to be vigilant."

Officials said the statement was written on Friday at the end of a two-day meeting in Nairobi to discuss the contentious issue of deployment of African peacekeepers to Somalia.

Plans by the African Union (AU) to deploy peacekeepers to Somalia from Kenya, Djibouti and traditional rival Ethiopia have sparked an angry reaction from many Somalis, including warlords and militant Islamists who have promised to attack the troops.

Somalia has been carved up into fiefdoms run by rival warlords since 1991. Analysts said the statement by Igad ministers could put conflict prevention experts operating in the lawless Somalia into danger.

Matt Bryden, an ICG expert said he suspected the ministers were unhappy with the crisis group’s stand that the deployment of peacekeepers to Somalia was a highly divisive issue and should proceed only when a consensus was reached.