Somalia: East Africa to discuss Somalia peace deal

(SomaliNet) A meeting of East African leaders is about to begin in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss a potential new peace deal for Somalia, Al Jazeera\'s Mohammed Adow reports.

The meeting, being hosted by Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), follows a UN deal, brokered on Sunday, between the interim Somali government and an opposition group.

That pact calls for Ethiopian troops to withdraw from key areas of the capital Mogadishu and regional centres.

There were fears that the IGAD initiative would overlap with the separate UN-led Somali peace process in Djibouti.

The UN special envoy to Somalia has, however, lent his support to the Nairobi conference.

With only nine months left before the mandate of their government expires, Transitional Front Government (TFG) leaders attending the Nairobi conference are expecting to be audited by the very neighbours that helped create it.
The TFG came out of an earlier Kenya conference.

It has been in control of Mogadishu since last year, backed by thousands of Ethiopian troops.

Though there is little progress on the ground, the TFG denies it has failed.

Mohamed Talha, the deputy speaker of parliament, said: \"We recognise ourselves that we have sacrificed and have been victimised.

\"Many members of parliament were killed and injured, we lost many friends, and we want the international community and Somalis to recognise that we are heroes not failures,\" he said.

The TFG has been battling fighters loyal to the Islamic Courts\' Union, which had previously controlled the capital, and large parts of southern Somalia.

The Islamic Courts\' military wing, Al Shabaab, has split into a separate force.

Al Shabaab rejected Sunday\'s UN deal and has vowed to keep fighting.

For the past year, the TFG has been opposed by a group called the Alliance For the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), which includes the Islamic Courts\' Union.

But the ARS has also split - one faction signed the ceasefire deal on Sunday, the other opposes it.

The Nairobi conference – one of nearly 20 peace initiatives held for Somalia in the past 18 years - is welcome news to its people.

But given the dire situation in Somalia, many question its ability to succeed.

Today, Somalia is one of the world’s greatest humanitarian disasters, some say even worse than the western Sudan region of Darfur.

Nearly a half of the country’s population of seven million people depend on food aid according to UN estimates.

Many have fled their homes in the capital and live on its outskirts in some of the most desperate conditions.
Hundreds of others cross their borders daily to live as refugees.

Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991.-Aljazeera.