Somalia and Palestine re-establish diplomatic relations
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Africa Review
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Envoy Kamil Abdallah Saturday presented his credentials to Somalia President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed at the state house in Mogadishu.
The diplomat also passed on to President Ahmed a special message from the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
With the fundamentalist Al-Shabaab group having vacated most of its positions in the Somali capital, more countries and agencies have set up shop.
Ethiopia and Turkey are represented, as are European Union members Italy and Britain.
The UN also moved its Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) there earlier this year.
Almost all diplomatic staff were eveacuated from Mogadishu at the start of Somalia's civil war in January 1991 when Gen Mohamed Siad Barre's regime collapsed under pressure from rebel groups.
Elsewhere, at least ten people were reported dead after armed men from different pirate groups triggered heavy fighting in Haradhere district, some 400 kilometres north east of Mogadishu on Saturday.
At least a dozen were taken to hospital, reports said.
The clashes occurred 45 km outside the town when one pirate militia group ambushed other pirates from a rival clan co-habiting in the area.
The district is considered the birth place of the notorious Somali pirates who have been hijacking ships and crews close to a decade in exchange for ransom.