SIRTE: Somali Islamist leaders expect to lobby African Union (AU) member states at an AU ceremony in Libya on Saturday to abandon a plan to send peacekeepers to Somalia, one of the leaders said. In an interview with Reuters and the BBC, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed suggested his delegation would also seek Libyan help in bringing about a rapprochement between the Islamists and the fragile Somali interim government. "We might talk to them (African leaders) about participating in the prevention of IGAD forces intervening in Somali affairs," Sheikh Sharif said, referring to the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, a peace mediation body made up of several east African nations. "We might demand from IGAD states not to have international forces intervene in Somalia," Sheikh Sharif said. "There is no need for international forces in Somalia. The problem has ended. The Somali people are living in safety and (peace) talks are under way. But humanitarian help is needed because the country is affected by war," he said.
Sheikh Sharif is a senior official in an Islamist movement which captured a swathe of south-central Somalia earlier this year in direct challenge to the government of interim President Abdullahi Yusuf. The rise of the Islamists has damaged Yusuf's dream of establishing central rule in Somalia for the first time in 15 years.