Garowe Online (Garowe)
21 November 2008
Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has pledged to lead the government's delegation to the next round of the Djibouti-based peace process with an opposition faction.
President Yusuf told a Friday press conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi that he traveled to Libya to strengthen relations with that country and the Arab world.
"Somalia and Libya are both members of the Arab League, so I appealed for support," the Somali leader said.
He urged the Arab world to accept the ongoing peace process, which Yusuf said will help end years of anarchy and bloodshed in the Horn of Africa country.
"Somalia's situation is terrible because we [Somalis] destroyed the country," he said, adding: "We lost our peace, our nation, our integrity and our unity and there are some groups who still want to continue the violence."
President Yusuf dismissed media reports - and an allegation from Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein - that he intended to change the peace talks venue from Djibouti to Libya. Full story
He said: "This is untrue. The Djibouti talks concerns all Somalis who want peace. Personally, am ready to lead the government's delegation to Djibouti to work towards peace."
Somalia's leader briefly addressed the establishment of a regional government for Banadir, where the national capital Mogadishu is located.
"The Somali Parliament passed a law regarding the creation of regional governments, which calls on the public to vote for their regional and district leaders," he noted.
Government leaders in Somalia are embroiled a political dispute that has severely weakened the interim government's ability to rule the country in the face of a growing Islamist insurgency.
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