African leaders discuss Somalia military pact

NAIROBI – East African leaders hastily turned a high-level summit on Somalia into informal talks yesterday, after rival powers in the lawless nation cut a deal to join their military forces in a separate diplomatic effort.

The summit had been expected to push forward long-delayed plans to send African peacekeepers to Somalia and to wrest the diplomatic lead on solving the country’s political crisis from the Arab League. But late on Monday, delegates from Somalia’s interim government and the Islamists now controlling critical parts of the country agreed in principle to eventually join their military forces if they can agree on sharing political power.The pact stressed that neither side would accept military interference inside Somalia by neighbouring countries.It was not immediately clear which factions of the frequently divided Somali government supported the deal.The pact, reached under Arab League mediation in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, appeared to throw the Nairobi summit called by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) into confusion.IGAD led two years of peace talks in Kenya that culminated in the birth of the interim government in late 2004.Host Kenya issued a terse statement after news of Monday’s military agreement saying: “Due to the nature of discussions, today’s extraordinary meeting of IGAD has been transformed into a forum for informal consultations.”It offered no further details.Nampa-ReutersBut late on Monday, delegates from Somalia’s interim government and the Islamists now controlling critical parts of the country agreed in principle to eventually join their military forces if they can agree on sharing political power.The pact stressed that neither side would accept military interference inside Somalia by neighbouring countries.It was not immediately clear which factions of the frequently divided Somali government supported the deal.The pact, reached under Arab League mediation in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, appeared to throw the Nairobi summit called by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) into confusion.IGAD led two years of peace talks in Kenya that culminated in the birth of the interim government in late 2004.Host Kenya issued a terse statement after news of Monday’s military agreement saying: “Due to the nature of discussions, today’s extraordinary meeting of IGAD has been transformed into a forum for informal consultations.”It offered no further details.Nampa-Reuters