Somali leader calls for dialogue for avoid further clashes in north

www.chinaview.cn 2004-10-31 05:05:24

NAIROBI, Oct. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Somalia's newly-elected President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has called for dialogue to avoid further clashes between Somaliland and Puntland, two regions in the northern part of the country over their common border.

Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, Somali presidential spokesman Yusuf Ismail Baribari said "the president is calling for an immediate dialogue to resolve Somali crises, including the one between Somaliland and Puntland."

About 100 people were reported killed in fighting between Puntland and the rival Somali territory of Somaliland, which accused Puntland's leader, now Somalia's new president, of waging war on it.

Abdullahi Yusuf, elected president on Oct. 10, has pledged to work peacefully with breakaway Somaliland as he tries to restore order to Somalia.

A spokesman for Somaliland's Office of Defense said the death toll from the fighting, which erupted on Friday at the village of Adi-Addeye, about 30 km north of Las Anod, had risen to 109.

Yusuf, who has not yet been able to return to Somalia because of the continued insecurity, has asked the African Union to send 20,000 peacekeepers to disarm the militias controlling much of the failed state.

Ismail said Yusuf wanted an international fact-finding mission to establish the cause of the fighting and facilitate a ceasefire.

Yusuf said in a letter sent to neighboring states and the United Nations on Friday that Puntland had told him Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991, was waging "an all-out war."

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