     Dowlad | Friday, August 18, 2000 - 02:21 pm
Leading Somali Warlord to Attend Peace Talks in Djibouti
Story Filed: Friday, August 18, 2000 5:20 PM EST
DJIBOUTI (Aug. 18) XINHUA - A well-known warlord in northern Somalia will arrive here on Saturday to attend the ongoing Peace Conference of Somalia, a member of the transitional parliament of the east African country told Xinhua on Friday.
Mohammed Abshir Muse, a doyen in the transitional parliament, said, "Abdillahi Yussouf, now in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is due to fly in here Saturday."
Yussouf, over 70, has been a top leader of Puntland which declared independence in July of 1998.
He had formerly rejected the invitation by Djibouti President Ismael Omar Guelleh to attend the peace talks held in Djibouti, the 12th of its kind since 1991.
The leader had claimed that he would not come to the meeting unless he was promised a key post either in the new parliament or in the new cabinet.
It is generally believed that Yussouf's participation of the peace talks will throw his weight to the importance of the meeting which is designed to put an end to the 10-year-old civil war in Somalia. |
