Somali President arrives in Kenya for talks with UN envoy

The senior United Nations envoy to Somalia is holding talks in Nairobi with the country’s President and other political leaders as UN staff report that worsening humanitarian conditions inside the capital, Mogadishu.

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf arrived in the Kenyan capital yesterday for the talks with the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, and other UN officials, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters today.

Mr. Ould-Abdallah and Mr. Yusuf will focus on the ongoing selection process for Somalia’s next prime minister during their discussions, according to the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS).

Earlier today the Special Representative also met with Ali Mahdi Mohammed, the Chairman of Somalia’s National Reconciliation Congress.

The Nairobi meetings are taking place as the killings, violence and displacement continue across Mogadishu amid fighting between the insurgents and Ethiopian troops, which are in Somalia to support the country’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

Mr. Haq said some 50 civilians were killed and another 30 wounded during the past 24 hours in the capital, and as many as 114,000 residents of Mogadishu have been forced to flee their homes in recent weeks. In total, an estimated 850,000 Somali civilians have been displaced this year by the intermittent but deadly violence across the Horn of Africa country.