Nairobi — A delegation from the Somali Restoration and Reconciliation Council (SRRC) is in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for talks with Ethiopian officials, a senior member of the group confirmed to IRIN on Monday. Muhammad Ali Adan Qalinle, the governor Baidoa, said on Monday that Aydid and his delegation had left Baidoa, 240 km southwest of Mogadishu, for Addis Ababa. Led by Aydid, the current chairman of the SRRC, it includes, General Muhammad Sa'id Hirsi Morgan of the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), Abdullah Shaykh Isma'il of the South Somali National Movement (SSNM), Shaykh Adan Muhammad Nur, the first deputy chairman of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade, the second deputy chairman of the RRA. The SRRC, which was recently formed in Ethiopia, is a southern grouping opposed to the Mogadishu-based Transitional National Government (TNG).

Mogadishu faction leader Usman Hasan Ali Ato, and General Adan Abdullah Nur Gabyow of the SPM were already in Addis Ababa, Qalinle said. However, RRA chairman Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud was not expected to go and would be represented by his two deputies, Qalinle said. Muse Sudi Yalahow, a Mogadishu-based faction leader, had turned down the invitation, but no reasons were given for his refusal, Mogadishu sources told IRIN.