Regional Body to Discuss Power Sharing Option for Somalia

A regional African grouping has will hold a summit to discuss the possibility of power sharing between Somalia’s interim government and its militant rivals as a means to end 18 years of anarchy in the Horn of Africa country. The three day Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit, which is set to begin on October 26 in Nairobi, Kenya, will consider the option of a unity government modelled on the Kenyan and Zimbabwean examples. Somalia has been balkanized by incessant turf wars waged by warlords and insurgents, and worsened by the absence of an effective government since dictator Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. [PE]