Somalia asks AU to replace envoy for its electoral dispute mediation

Relations between Somalia and Kenya had been at the lowest point for the past six months after Mogadishu blamed Nairobi for frequent meddling in its internal politics, an allegation that Kenya repeatedly denied.

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Somalia asks AU to replace envoy for its electoral dispute mediation

MOGADISHU, Somalia - The Federal Government of Somalia has sent a letter to the African Union [AU] demanding to replace the newly appointed envoy for the country’s deadlock over the upcoming elections.

Sources confirmed to KON that Somalia rejected the appointment of the former Ghanaian president John Mahama to mediate in the ongoing stalemate, accusing him of having links to Kenyan leaders.

Relations between Somalia and Kenya had been at the lowest point for the past six months after Mogadishu blamed Nairobi for frequent meddling in its internal politics, an allegation that Kenya repeatedly denied.

Somalia’s ministry of foreign affairs argues that it has not been consulted on the appointment of Mahama and that it had not gone through the diplomatic process and the rules of the African Union.

The ex-president had a bad history in past tasks after he was kicked out of Sierra Leone as part of a committee from AU that was dispatched to Freetown by the commonwealth to observe an election.

AU’s chair Moussa Faki Mahamat picked Mahama as his envoy for Somalia two days ago, assigned with arbitration of the political crisis pitting the outgoing Somali government and the opposition candidates.

Latest reports from Addis Ababa indicate that the African Union rejected the letter from the Somali government, vowing the envoy will arrive in Mogadishu and begin mediating between rival leaders.

The opposition candidates wrote to the AU on Saturday demanding the removal of an advisor to the envoy, in what shows that the political standoff in Somalia is far from over.

KEYDMEDIA English 

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