From The Economist print edition
NAIROBI, 03 Jul 2008–
AFTER months of delicate negotiations, Somalia’s internationally recognised but feeble transitional government and its Islamist opposition agreed to work together to rebuild their ruined country. Under an agreement signed in neighbouring Djibouti in June, Ethiopia, which invaded Somalia in late 2006 to prop up the ailing secular-minded Somali government, was to withdraw its troops. Somalia’s Islamists, who have been fighting an insurgency ever since, would stand their fighters down. It would have been a breakthrough for a country that has lacked a central government since the fall of its long-time dictator, Siad Barre, in 1991. But the deal was stillborn. Since then, Somalia has rotted away, a victim of international indifference and its own internecine history. More on Somalia: Continuing to fail..! Will Somalia ever get the peacekeepers it needs?
The former Ethiopian President Negasso Gidada is to join forces with dissidents from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF, hard core of the governing coalition) led by Gebru Asrat, the former President of the Tigray Regional State and present leader of the Arena Tigray for Democracy and Sovereignty party, to create an opposition group called Medrek with the aim of jointly participating in future elections. Indeed, none of these various parties based along ethnic or regional lines is in a position on its own to field candidates for the whole of the country. Medrek, which means platform for democratic consultation in Ethiopia, also gathers the former Minister for Defence, the Tigrayan Seye Abraha, the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement (ODFM) led by Bulcha Demeksa, the UEDF led by Beyene Petros and the Somali Democratic Forces Coalition.
The Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) has taken a positive step today to correct its blunder by accepting $300,000 in donation from Woyanne businessman Ato Al Amoudi, a drunkard womanizer and a thief who calls himself “sheik.” (DLA Piper, take that to the court.) More on ESFNA takes steps to correct its mistakes
