The Somali Transitional Government said Friday that its forces would not try to retake insurgent-held territories, in compliance with a ceasefire agreement reached with a major opposition faction in Djibouti.
"Our forces will not be engaged in any more fighting because this is a time of peace and reconciliation between all Somali sides," Salad Ali Jeelle, newly appointed deputy defense minister of the Somali government, told Xinhua.
Somali opposition groups are in control of much of southern and central Somalia while Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers are protecting Mogadishu, the Somali capital, and the southern Somali town of Baidoa, the seat of the transitional parliament.
Somali government and the main opposition group, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), have reached a series of peace and power sharing deals to end the two decades long Somali civil conflict.
Under the agreements the two sides formed two committees, a High Level Committee, to deal with political cooperation of the two sides, and a Joint Security Committee to implement the cease fire agreements.
On Tuesday, the two sides signed a power-sharing deal, in which the current membership of the national parliament will be doubled. The new parliament will elect new Somali leadership, a process envisaged to be completed with a month from signing the agreement.
Source: Xinhua
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