Garowe Online (Garowe)
4 December 2008
DJIBOUTI A delegation led by interim Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf flew from the northern region of Puntland Thursday after receiving an invitation from the government of Djibouti, Radio Garowe reported.
The Somali president was accompanied by Puntland leader Gen. Adde Muse. Neither official spoke with the media before flying from a small airstrip in the outskirts of Garowe, the capital of Puntland.
Ismail Omar Ghelle, President of Djibouti
Upon arriving, President Yusuf met with Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Ghelle, with sources saying Puntland's leader also attended the meeting.
No reports emerged after the discussions, but it is Yusuf's first trip to Djibouti since Somali Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein signed a controversial power-sharing deal with an opposition faction in late November.
Last week, President Yusuf told Al Jazeera that the power-sharing agreement is a "clan agreement," a reference to the agreement's signatories who all belong to the Somalis' Hawiye clan.
On Wednesday, the Puntland administration issued a press release warning that the power-sharing deal could lead to the collapse of the Somali interim government. READ: Somalia power-sharing deal 'a recipe for disaster': Puntland
The power-sharing deal calls for a new parliament with 550 members, including 275 seats delegated to the opposition faction. The new parliament will then elect a Speaker and a new President of Somalia by the end of January 2009.
But the agreement has been widely rejected by significant political and military forces across Somalia, including Islamic Courts fighters and a group of Muslim scholars who have been attempting to mediate among warring Islamist factions. READ: Islamic Courts spokesman rejects power-sharing deal
Somalia has been mired in endless conflict since the early 1990s, when dozens of peace conferences collapsed and the country suffered warlord violence and Ethiopian occupation.
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