somalia: Arab League to mediate between rivals

Published on Monday 19th May 2008

Somalia: A delegation from the Arab League is heading  to Somalia Monday under the leadership of the recently appointed envoy to Somalia.

The delegation is led by Ibrahim Shuweym, who is the newly appointed envoy to Somalia.

The aim of the delegation is said to mediate between the government and the Asmara-based opposition group.

The Arab League envoy is expected to meet the President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad and Prime Minister Nur Hasan Hussein and other officials of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, agency report said.

Its yet unknown whether the delegates with meet with anti-Gov and Ethiopian troops groups.

The Islamists who control Mogadishu have expanded their influence in recent months, effectively flanking the Western-backed interim government, based in the provincial town of Baidoa, on three sides