Somalia / Italy's new peacemaking efforts

ROME, Italy, January 20, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The meeting's main objectives are to underscore the importance of Italy's commitment to fostering a resolution to the crisis in Somalia, examine the prospects of the Federal Transitional Institutions, and to stress the need for the Mogadishu government's concrete commitment to re-establishing peace in the country. Minister Frattini, who considers the Somalia dossier one of Italy's top foreign policy priorities, will also be present at Berlusconi's encounter with Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmajo”.

The meeting, convened on the request of Somalia, is taking place seven months prior to the end of the Mogadishu Federal Institutions' transition period. Premier “Farmajo” has set up a more manageable government than those of the past (17 ministers), and will probably ask Italy and the international community for support in involving the most cooperative part of the Somali Diaspora in bringing peace back to the country.

Italy, as the ministry's Director General for the Countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, Rosa Anna Coniglio, explained, “will have to evaluate” relations with Somalia, and the Somali premier must “clarify what his plans are” for the final seven months of his mandate, which should close the transitional phase and lead to stable institutions and a legitimate government, as envisaged in the 2008 Djibouti Accord. The present Somali government will have to complete “concrete steps” in the implementation of what are known as the “transitional tasks”, i.e. a national reconciliation strategy, development of governance capacity and re-instatement of essential services for the people. And Italy “will do everything necessary to help, with the understanding, however, that “ownership of the process must be Somalia's”.Read More