Garowe Online (Garowe)
7 January 2008
Garowe — The president of Somalia's interim government, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, and the leader of the separatist region of Somaliland, Dahir Riyale Kahin, boarded the same plane Saturday on their way to London, sources said.
It was not confirmed whether or not the two men talked to each other during the hours-long flight to the United Kingdom, but sources said Yusuf and Riyale and their separate delegations occupied the 12-seat first-class section of an Ethiopian Airlines jet that flew from Addis Ababa.
Ethiopian government sources in Addis Ababa told Garowe Online the shared flight to London was not pre-planned.
Last week, Yusuf and Riyale traded accusations through the media.
Somali President Yusuf demanded that Somaliland troops withdraw from the disputed region of Sool, which Riyale's forces captured last October from Puntland, Yusuf's home region.
Riyale responded to Yusuf's demand by accusing the Somali president of being a man who likes to threaten everyone, and categorically ruled out a Sool pullout.
Yusuf flew back to London to continue his medical treatment. But Somaliland's Riyale went to London as part of a foreign trip to push for diplomatic recognition for his breakaway sub-state in northern Somalia, which has not been recognized since declaring independece in 1991.
The two rivals do not recognize each other's governments. Yusuf considers Somaliland as a region within Somalia, which his transitional government rules, but Riyale does not recognize the authority of Yusuf.
Riyale recently told a radio station that he supports Ethiopia's military intervention in Somalia, but does not recognize Yusuf's interim government.
Ethiopia deployed troops into southern Somalia in December 2006 to help Yusuf's government oust Islamist rebels from the capital Mogadishu.
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