MOGADISHU: The United Nations on Monday urged Somalia’s leaders to make good on their agreement for a new election timetable after repeated delays sparked a perilous political crisis.
Under a deal announced late Sunday after talks between Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble and state leaders, parliamentary polls that should have wrapped up last year are now due to be concluded by February 25.
The election impasse set off a bitter power struggle between Roble and President President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as Farmajo, that threatened the stability of the fragile Horn of Africa nation.
The UN mission in Somalia said on Twitter it was “pleased” at the consensus reached during the meetings of the National Consultative Council.
But it added: “The priority now is to implement these decisions to achieve a credible and widely-accepted result by the new deadline.
“The UN encourages Somali’s political leaders to continue in a spirit of cooperation, avoid provocations that risk new tensions or conflict and stay focused on delivering a credible electoral process quickly for the benefit of all Somalis.”
The international community had voiced fears that the election delays and the Roble-Farmajo feud could tip the country deeper into crisis as it continues to battle a deadly insurgency by Al-Shabab jihadists.
Somalia is also in a grip of a severe drought that according to the United Nations has left one in four people facing acute hunger.
Farmajo’s four-year mandate expired in February last year, but was controversially extended by parliament the following April, triggering deadly gunbattles on the streets of Mogadishu.
Roble then brokered a new election timetable, but in the months that followed, the pair’s bitter rivalry derailed the process again.
In the latest spat, Farmajo suspended Roble, but the premier defied the order, accusing the president of violating the constitution and of an “attempted coup.”
The country’s elections follow a complex indirect model. Nearly 30,000 clan delegates are assigned to choose 275 MPs for the lower house while state legislatures elect senators for the upper house, a process that has now been completed.
Once the lower house election is concluded, both assemblies vote for the next president.
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UN presses Somali leaders to make good on election deal
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UN presses Somali leaders to make good on election deal
- The UN mission in Somalia said on Twitter it was “pleased” at the consensus reached during the meetings of the National Consultative Council
US, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators to meet in UAE for security talks
MOSCOW: Ukrainian, US and Russian officials will hold security talks in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the Kremlin said, following a meeting of top US negotiators with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on a US-drafted plan to end the Ukraine war.
Diplomatic efforts to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II have gained pace in recent months, though Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over the key issue of territory in a post-war settlement.
US negotiators, led by envoy Steve Witkoff, talked with the Russian leader in Moscow into the early hours of Friday, according to a Kremlin statement.
Kremlin diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters their discussions had been “useful in every respect.”
Witkoff and the US team are next flying to Abu Dhabi, where talks are expected to continue.
A Russian delegation, headed by General Igor Kostyukov, director of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, will also head there “in the coming hours,” according to Ushakov.
“It was agreed that the first meeting of a trilateral working group on security issues will take place today in Abu Dhabi,” Ushakov added.
“We are genuinely interested in resolving (the conflict) through political and diplomatic means,” he said, but added: “Until that happens, Russia will continue to achieve its objectives... on the battlefield.”
Witkoff previously said he believed the two sides were “down to one issue,” without elaborating.
Video published by the Kremlin showed a smiling Putin shaking hands with Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House adviser Josh Gruenbaum.
The high-stakes meeting came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a draft deal was “nearly, nearly ready” and that he and Trump had agreed on the issue of post-war security guarantees.
He also said the UK and France had already committed to forces on the ground.
Zelensky said Ukraine’s delegation at the UAE meeting would be led by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Rustem Umerov, and would include Lt. Gen. Andriy Gnatov, the chief of staff of Ukrainian armed forces.
Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine, is pushing for full control of the country’s eastern Donbas region as part of a deal.
But Kyiv has warned that ceding ground will embolden Moscow and says it will not sign a peace deal that fails to deter Russia from launching a renewed assault.
- Europe ‘fragmented’ -
The full details of the upcoming talks in the United Arab Emirates have not been released, and it is not clear whether the Russian and Ukrainian officials will meet face-to-face.
Zelensky said these talks would last two days.
Trump repeated on Wednesday his oft-stated belief that Putin and Zelensky were close to a deal.
“I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done. And if they don’t, they’re stupid — that goes for both of them,” he said after delivering a speech at Davos.
Zelensky, at his address in Davos, blasted the EU’s lack of “political will” in countering Putin in a fiery address.
“Instead of becoming a truly global power, Europe remains a beautiful but fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers,” he said.
Trump’s dramatic foreign policy pivots including a recent bid to take over Greenland — an autonomous Danish territory — have stirred worries in Europe about whether Washington can be trusted as a reliable security partner.
In his speech, Zelensky criticized Europe for pinning hopes on the United States defending them in case of aggression.
“Europe looks lost trying to convince the US President to change,” Zelensky said.
Russian strikes this week have left most of Kyiv without electricity, with residents of 4,000 buildings without heat in sub-zero temperatures.
Russia, which launched its Ukraine offensive in February 2022, says its strikes are aimed at energy infrastructure fueling Ukraine’s “military-industrial complex.”
Kyiv says the strikes are a war crime designed to wear down its civilian population.
Diplomatic efforts to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II have gained pace in recent months, though Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over the key issue of territory in a post-war settlement.
US negotiators, led by envoy Steve Witkoff, talked with the Russian leader in Moscow into the early hours of Friday, according to a Kremlin statement.
Kremlin diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters their discussions had been “useful in every respect.”
Witkoff and the US team are next flying to Abu Dhabi, where talks are expected to continue.
A Russian delegation, headed by General Igor Kostyukov, director of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, will also head there “in the coming hours,” according to Ushakov.
“It was agreed that the first meeting of a trilateral working group on security issues will take place today in Abu Dhabi,” Ushakov added.
“We are genuinely interested in resolving (the conflict) through political and diplomatic means,” he said, but added: “Until that happens, Russia will continue to achieve its objectives... on the battlefield.”
Witkoff previously said he believed the two sides were “down to one issue,” without elaborating.
Video published by the Kremlin showed a smiling Putin shaking hands with Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House adviser Josh Gruenbaum.
The high-stakes meeting came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a draft deal was “nearly, nearly ready” and that he and Trump had agreed on the issue of post-war security guarantees.
He also said the UK and France had already committed to forces on the ground.
Zelensky said Ukraine’s delegation at the UAE meeting would be led by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Rustem Umerov, and would include Lt. Gen. Andriy Gnatov, the chief of staff of Ukrainian armed forces.
Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine, is pushing for full control of the country’s eastern Donbas region as part of a deal.
But Kyiv has warned that ceding ground will embolden Moscow and says it will not sign a peace deal that fails to deter Russia from launching a renewed assault.
- Europe ‘fragmented’ -
The full details of the upcoming talks in the United Arab Emirates have not been released, and it is not clear whether the Russian and Ukrainian officials will meet face-to-face.
Zelensky said these talks would last two days.
Trump repeated on Wednesday his oft-stated belief that Putin and Zelensky were close to a deal.
“I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done. And if they don’t, they’re stupid — that goes for both of them,” he said after delivering a speech at Davos.
Zelensky, at his address in Davos, blasted the EU’s lack of “political will” in countering Putin in a fiery address.
“Instead of becoming a truly global power, Europe remains a beautiful but fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers,” he said.
Trump’s dramatic foreign policy pivots including a recent bid to take over Greenland — an autonomous Danish territory — have stirred worries in Europe about whether Washington can be trusted as a reliable security partner.
In his speech, Zelensky criticized Europe for pinning hopes on the United States defending them in case of aggression.
“Europe looks lost trying to convince the US President to change,” Zelensky said.
Russian strikes this week have left most of Kyiv without electricity, with residents of 4,000 buildings without heat in sub-zero temperatures.
Russia, which launched its Ukraine offensive in February 2022, says its strikes are aimed at energy infrastructure fueling Ukraine’s “military-industrial complex.”
Kyiv says the strikes are a war crime designed to wear down its civilian population.
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