By FRED OLUOCH
The Somali government has finally given in to pressure and allowed the formation of a self-administered region of Jubbaland.
On Tuesday, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud commissioned the Jubbaland Reconciliation Conference in Kismayu, in which 800 delegates started working on inter-clan dialogue with the objective of establishing the Jubbaland regional assembly and a formal functioning executive in southern Somalia.
The regional reconciliation process will serve as a model for the whole country ahead of the 2016 elections.
The support from Mogadishu is a major breakthrough given that there had been a stand-off between the Somali Federal Government and the Kenya forces serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) in Kismayu.
Mogadishu had earlier accused Kenyan forces of backing Sheikh Ahmed Madobe in order to hive off an autonomous state from Somalia.
Mohammed Affey, the Inter-Governmental Authority of Development (Igad) special envoy to Somalia, said, “By presiding over the conference, President Mohamoud has proven that the Somali Federal Government has the will, the ability and the intention of achieving the federal units as provided for in the provisional constitution. This is a model for achieving national reconciliation and the next step will be the promulgation of a new constitutional order as the government prepares the country for the 2016 elections,” said Mr Affey.
The Jubbaland reconciliation conference — bringing together stakeholders from the three regions that make up the federal unit — was only possible after the militia leader Barre Adan Shire Hiiraale decided to join hands with the Sheikh Madobe administration.
Mr Hiiraale, a former Defence minister during the first Somalia Transitional Government led by former president Abdullahi Yusuf, joined the reconciliation process after a delegation from Igad and the Federal Government travelled to his stronghold of Gogani.
Jubbaland is made up of Geddo, Middle Juba and Lower Juba, although some five districts out of the three regions are still in the hands of Al Shabaab.
Source: The East African
