Thursday, April 22, 2010

Arab League seeks international peacekeepers in Somalia

The Arab League (AL) on Wednesday called on the UN Security Council to send international peacekeeping forces to Somalia.

The league and the African Union (AU) are asking the UN Security Council to send peacekeepers to the war-torn country, said head of the AL Afro-Arab Cooperation Department Samir Hosni on the sidelines of a meeting here for the International Somalia Contact Group.

AL is still holding talks with the UN Security Council to reach an agreement over the issue, the senior Arab official added.

Asked about the UN Security Council's delay in making a decision in this regard, Hosni said until now there is no unanimity over the issue. It would take some time for many of the council's permanent members to make the decision.

"This is what we disagree upon (with these countries) because we see that there was the Djibouti Peace Agreement and the UN has to keep peace or at least to support the AU peacekeepers in Somalia," he added.

The AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was authorized by the United Nations in January 2007 with the goal of bringing an end to civil war in the impoverished country.

The Somali government and the main moderate Islamist group Ahlu Sunnah Waljama inked on March 15 a power sharing agreement at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which committed the two parties to full cooperation towards peace and reconciliation.

Early in June 2008, the Somali transitional government and a main faction of the opposition coalition, the Alliance for the Re- liberation of Somalia (ARS), signed a peace deal which stipulated that a ceasefire should come into effect throughout Somalia 30 days after its signing.

Source: Xinhua

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