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Somalia: As Talks Fail, Islamist Advances Continue |
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UN-sponsored talks between Somalia’s transitional government and the Union of Islamic Courts scheduled to be held in neighboring Djibouti broke down when the UIC refused to meet the government face-to-face.
After four days meeting UN diplomats in Djibouti, the two sides agreed to attend further talks in two weeks time.
The opposition insists it will not engage in direct negotiations until the government agrees a timetable for Ethiopian troops to leave Somalia.
The two sides did, however, issue a joint appeal to improve aid access.
Ethiopian troops are in Somalia supporting a transitional government, but an insurgency has led hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.
The parties decided to meet again in Djibouti for further talks on 31 May.
The issue of the Ethiopian occupiers highlights the problems caused by our inadequate international institutions. If anyone should be boosting Somalia’s transitional government, it should be international forces, not those of a neighboring country perceived by many Somalis as an enemy. The UN has flirted with the idea of sending in peacekeepers, though in my view they should fulfill their mandate in Sudan before considering such a move. If world powers offered greater support to the UN, of course, it would be possible to have forces in both countries.
Barring those kind of solutions, which at present appear terribly far off, no side in the Somali seems likely to have their demands met in the near future. And that’s why fighting will continue, as it did today when UIC militants seized control of Jilib, a small town in southern Somalia. And in deep-rooted conditions of violence and insecurity, the next generation faces a future that is just as bleak.
