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| Africa Horn | |
| Some Somali rebels to join government: FM | |
| 2009-09-06 | |
| Somalia's embattled government is negotiating with Islamist rebels and has persuaded some of them to join its administration to try to end a deadly spiral of violence, the foreign minister said on Saturday. "The government maintains its plans for reconciliation and we have started talking to the rebel groups of Hizb al-Islam and the Shebab," Ali Ahmed Jama told reporters in Mogadishu.
His comments came after a relative lull in the fighting that has devastated the capital since the Shebab, an al-Qaeda-inspired group, and the more political Hizb al-Islam movement launched a military offensive on May 7. "We are working closely with community groups and the country will be under government control soon," Jama said. Both rebel groups have vowed to continue their struggle against the internationally-backed transitional federal government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed until the departure of African Union (AU) peacekeepers. | |
| Posted by:Fred |