15 February 2002
Regional governments yesterday warned allied forces against military intervention in the latest phase in the war on terrorism.
"We urge the coalition not to take military action, not to increase the suffering of the Somali people," said Mr Mustafa Ismail, the chairman of foreign ministers of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, a regional grouping of East and Horn of Africa nations pursuing peace in war-torn Somalia and Sudan.
"Give us (Igad) a chance to reconcile the warring factions. Do not attack them and increase the misery," he told allied forces, who have shifted their anti-terrorism focus from Afghanistan to Somalia, at a news conference in Nairobi.
The possibility of coalition forces led by the US targeting Somalia has increased with the recent massing of foreign troops off the East African coast. Because it lacks any structure of administration, it is perceived as a suitable hideout for terrorists escaping Afghanistan.
The ministers from Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan and Tanzania are meeting in Nairobi to discuss strategies on reconciliation in Somalia.
Igad aims at charting a broad-based government involving all the feuding factions in Somalia.
Kenya's Foreign Minister, Mr Marsden Madoka, said IGAD was optimistic that the groups could reconcile despite faltering initiatives in the past.
The Igad chief executive, Mr Bashir Attala, said the prospect of military attacks against Somalia was "unsettling". "There will be repercussions if the allied forces go ahead with the plan. The stability of that country bears on the stability of the entire region."
The conference in March will be another step towards peace in Somalia but analysts are pessimistic that not much has happened in the past despite the myriad ceasefire initiatives.
At a summit last year in Nakuru, a number of Somali warlords renounced violence, signed a ceasefire and expressed desire to form into a government of national unity, only to engage each other upon returning home.
It would seem the war on terror has brought a new urgency to calls for peace in this Horn of Africa country.
The ministers were expected to issue a communique Friday morning.
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