UN Special Representative to Visit Baidoa and Mogadishu

Ambassador Francois Fall undertakes mission to foster peaceful dialogue in Somalia

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Nairobi, 25 July - The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, left Nairobi for Baidoa and Mogadishu early today (Tuesday) on a mission to ease tensions between leaders of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Supreme Council of the Islamic Courts (SCIC).

Ambassador Fall was scheduled to meet with Somali President, Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister, Ali Mohammed Gedi, in Baidoa and with Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the (SCIC) in Mogadishu.

“My goal in Baidoa and in Mogadishu is to encourage the parties to enter into a genuine and meaningful dialogue and to participate in a second round of talks in Khartoum,” he said. "They made a good beginning when they met in Khartoum last month and a continuation of that process would provide a further opportunity for them to flesh out their expectations and move towards a peaceful solution."

At the first Khartoum meeting on 22 June, the parties agreed to a ceasefire and to refrain from any provocations that could escalate the situation.

For more information please contact: UN Political Office for Somalia(Nairobi, Kenya) Tel. +254 20 762 21 31 Please visit: www.UN-Somalia.org