From Africa Recovery, Vol.14#3 (October 2000), Briefs page

After long negotiations, a government for Somalia?

Coming out of nearly a decade of statelessness and perpetual civil war among a multitude of rival militias and warlords, Somalia now has at least a semblance of a central government. In August, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan recognized this progress in a message to Mr. Abdikassim Salad Hassan on the occasion of his inauguration as president of Somalia. Mr. Annan also paid tribute to the role played by Djibouti President Omar Guelleh in facilitating the consultative process that led to the formation of the government, while noting the formidable difficulties that lie ahead.

The following month, President Hassan took up Somalia's old seat at the UN when he addressed the Millennium Summit of the General Assembly in New York. He expressed gratification at bringing Somalia back into the international community and described the peace process that brought together in Djibouti more than 2,500 individuals from many segments of Somali civil society, including traditional elders, businessmen and intellectuals. They "found a reservoir of wisdom and the willingness to forgive," he said. After four months of painstaking negotiations, the participants in the Djibouti consultations selected 650 official delegates, who chose the drafters of a national charter and ultimately selected 245 members of a new Transitional National Assembly. The assembly, in turn, elected Mr. Hassan as president of the republic.

Major obstacles still lie ahead, note African observers. Most of the warlords, as well as political leaders in two northern regions of Somalia, did not take part in the Djibouti consultations and may not recognize the new government. In October, militiamen in Mogadishu attacked legislators returning to the Somali capital.

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