Cairo peace accord on Somalia dead said warlord
Somalia, Politics, 6/5/1998

Somali warlord Othman Ali, known as Atto, has said that the peace accord signed by warring Somali factions in Cairo, December 1997 is dead, adding that a new meeting should be convened to find a better formula for the peace process.

He accused his opponents Ali Mahdi Muhammad and Hussein Muhammad Aideed as appointing themselves, without his being informed, as chairpersons of the national coordination committee which supervises preparations for convening the national reconciliation conference. He also accused Aideed of refusing to withdraw his troops from Beedawa one month before convening the conference.

The Cairo accord allows the formation of a provisional government following the convening of the national reconciliation conference in Beedawa in the southwest of the country, scheduled to have been held on last February 15 and was repeatedly postponed until May 15, when all attempts made by the Somali factions to make amendments in the accord were failed.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for al-Rahwanin army, Muhammad Ahmad Kalinli, said that 26 men from his militias were killed and another 56 wounded in battles that took place on Thursday morning in Beedawa with Aideed's fighters, who conveyed fortifications from his base at Baleido Ghli, some 90 km to the north of Makadishu. Aideed's militias have occupied the city since 1994.

Previous Stories:
  Somalia reconciliation conference canceled   (5/14/1998)
  Egypt calls for Somali peace talks   (5/12/1998)
  Urgent Arab League meeting to discuss Somali crisis   (5/5/1998)

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