Govt to return 'without delay'
2005-03-08 17:31
Nairobi - Transitional Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said on Tuesday the lawless country's government in exile will relocate to Somalia "without any further delay", but offered no hint as to when that might be.
Yusuf made the pledge in a meeting with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in Nairobi, where the Somali government has been based for security reasons since its creation in October, according to Kenyan officials.
Yusuf "announced that his government currently based in Nairobi will relocate to Somalia without any further delay", Kibaki's office said in a statement released after the meeting.
In addition, Yusuf reaffirmed the need for the deployment of a controversial regional peacekeeping mission to help the government get a foothold in his war-shattered nation despite opposition to the force from Somali warlords, the statement said.
The Somali president - who last week wrapped up a fact-finding mission to Somalia, his first visit home since becoming president - said any delay in the relocation could hurt support he had found for the government.
He "told President Kibaki that the people of Somalia were eager to embrace his government, hence any delays in re-location would compromise the positive mood", the Kenyan statement said.
Kenyan officials have been putting pressure on Yusuf, transitional Somali Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi and other officials to move the government from Nairobi to Somalia for some time.
According to the statement, Kibaki told Yusuf that the relocation was necessary as soon as possible in order to give the government legitimacy.
Kibaki "emphasised the need to re-locate to Somalia to avoid any references of the 'government in exile'," it said.
Somalia, in particular the capital of Mogadishu, has been disputed by unruly warlords since dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991, turning the nation of 10 million people into a patchwork of fiefdoms.