Top UN envoy welcomes opposition leader’s return to Somali capital

The top United Nations envoy to Somalia today welcomed the return of an opposition leader, who took part in reconciliation talks with the strife-torn Horn of Africa nation’s Government, to the capital Mogadishu.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, characterized the return after a nearly two-year absence of Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who heads the Alliance of the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), as “a most welcome development.”

Under June’s Djibouti Agreement, the ARS and the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) decided to end their conflict and called on the UN to deploy an international stabilization force to the troubled nation, which has not had a functioning national government since 1991.

Somalia has been beset by fighting and massive humanitarian suffering for the past two decades but the violence has flared anew this year, particularly in and around the capital, Mogadishu, and caused widespread displacement.

Mr. Ould-Abdallah also issued a call for Somalis of all political or other affiliations, during the period of Eid al-Adha to agree on pressing ahead with reconciliation, security, unity and dignity.