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Somalia leaders reach agreement on re-shaping politics
Key Somali leaders have signed a plan to try to end the country’s two-decade-long political crisis.
The agreement provides for a new, smaller parliament and an upper house of elders.
The deal came at a meeting in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, but did not include some key actors.
Al-Shabab militants, who control large areas of central and south Somalia, and the self-declared independent state of Somaliland did not take part.
The latest agreement provides the first indication of what Somalis would like to see from this week’s key conference in London.
For three days Somali leaders had met in Garowe, the capital of Puntland.
Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was joined by leaders of the pro-government militia, al-Sunna Wal Jamaaca, and senior officials from another semi-autonomous region, Galmudug.
The consultative conference hammered out a blueprint for a future government, to replace the current transitional government, whose mandate expires in August.
Somalia would become a federal state, with Mogadishu as the federal capital.
(Source: BBC)
