Sheikh Aweys has been living in the Eritrean capital Asmara ever since Ethiopian troops intervened in southern Somalia in Dec. 2006 to oust the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which was then led by Sheikh Aweys and Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Somalia's new UN-backed president.
In recent days, Sheikh Aweys has reportedly reached the capital of Sudan, Khartoum, where he met privately with Sheikh Abdirahman Janakow, the Somali Justice Minister and formerly a senior ICU official.
Gen. Jama Mohamed Ghalib, Sheikh Aweys' deputy in the Eritrea-based Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) faction, confirmed reports that the Islamist opposition leader has reached Khartoum to take part of mediation efforts.
"There are ongoing efforts to reconcile the ARS-Eritrea and the government of [President] Sheikh Sharif, but the main dispute remains the presence of AMISOM," Gen. Ghalib said, referring to a 4,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force serving in Mogadishu.
However, the spokesman for the Eritrea-based ARS faction, Sheikh Hassan Mahdi, told journalists in the southern port of Kismayo that reports of mediation between ARS-Eritrea and Sheikh Sharif's government are "baseless."
But sources close to Sheikh Aweys said that the Islamist leader will travel to Mogadishu as part of an ongoing reconciliation effort between him and President Sheikh Sharif, his former ally.
Sheikh Aweys is on the U.S. government's terror list, although recent reports have indicated that the Somali President has been leading efforts to remove him from the list.