Somalia’s President Mohamed Farmaajo has accepted the intervention of the African Union in the dispute over elections in his country.
President Farmaajo was received by D.R. Congo President Félix Tshisekedi, who is also the AU chairman in Kinshasa on Monday.
During the two-hour meeting, Farmaajo briefed President Tshisekedi on the political and security situation in Somalia.
A dispatch from the Presidential Palace in Kinshasa said “President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed particularly insisted that the African Union and chairman should play a leading role to facilitate and frame the negotiations and the dialogue between all the Somali stakeholders”
It stated that the African Union desires “to reach an agreement between Somalis for the good of the Somalis.”
President Tshisekedi welcomed the Somali president’s willingness, in the spirit of African solidarity, to confide in him as current President of the African Union in accordance with the relevant provisions of the AU Charter.
President Farmaajo’s trip was necessitated as pressure mounted on him to quell the tension that arose last week after the Lower House of Parliament voted to extend its mandate and that of the president by two years.
He had insisted that the Lower House had performed its legal duty of legislating and accused the external partners of interference.
But the African Union whose combat force, Amisom, is still guarding key installations in Somalia; the European Union which pays Amisom soldiers, the UK and US both of who give substantial security support and the UN all rejected the extension.