MOGADISHU, July 15 (AFP): Somalia's National Reconciliation Congress is set to gather in the capital Mogadishu Sunday for peace talks aimed at winning over rival factions locked in a bloody power struggle for the last 16 years.
The thrice-postponed meeting, held under a cloud of violence, is expected to draw some 1,325 delegates from across the war- shattered nation.
The virtually homeless government, which has failed to bring the restive country under control in its three years of existence, is staging the conference at a former police warehouse in northern Mogadishu.
Ethiopia-backed government troops have sealed off the venue, frisking pedestrians and searching vehicles while others took up positions around major hotels where delegates will stay.
Leaders of a defeated Islamist movement are boycotting the conference, demanding that talks be held outside Somalia and only after Ethiopia withdraws its troops.
And a radical Islamist faction, which has vowed to disrupt the meeting, on Saturday distributed leaflets in Mogadishu warning delegates against attending.
"They promised to kill any person attending the conference," Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed Omar Habeb told AFP, citing the leaflets.
Somalis gather for fresh peace bid
FE Team | Published: July 16, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
Share if you like