African ministers are due to meet in Kenya from Friday to review
security situation in Somalia and the progress of the Sudan peace
process, officials said here Thursday.
The ministers from the seven-member Inter-Governmental Authority
on Development (IGAD) will review efforts currently in place to
deploy peacekeepers to Somalia a year after it was mandated to do
so.
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"The IGAD Council of Ministers will also deliberate on
rationalization of Regional Economic Communities in preparation for
the African Union meeting in Banjul, Gambia in July 2006," said a
statement from Kenya's Foreign Ministry.
"Other matters on the agenda include consideration and approval
of programs, projects and the annual budget of the secretariat as
presented by the Committee of Experts," it said.
The two-day meeting of the ministers from the seven member
states will precede the IGAD Heads of State and Government Summit
which opens in Nairobi on Monday next week.
According to the tentative program unveiled here, the regional
ministers are also expected to discuss a request by the League of
Arab States to be member of the IGAD Partners Forum (IPF).
The regional bloc spearheaded both the Somalia National
Reconciliation Conference and the Sudan Peace Process which were
successfully concluded with the establishment of the Transitional
Federal Government for Somalia and the signing of the Sudan Peace
Agreement.
The latter led to the formation of the government of national
unity in Sudan.
The IGAD groups Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea,
Djibouti and Somalia.
(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2006)
