Hiiraan Online
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
GALKAYO (HOL) – Two rival Somali regions who have battled for control of a central Somali town signed a peace agreement Wednesday, officials said, raising hopes of an end to violence that killed more than 20 people since last week.
The presidents of Puntland, a semiautonomous region in northern Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gas and Abdikarim Hussein Guled of Galmudug, a regional administration in central Somalia agreed to a ceasefire and to withdraw armed forces from the battlefields.
Somalia’s prime minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke who brokered the peace deal described the deal as ‘turning point’, calling the two sides to translated the agreement into an end of the violence which
displaced thousands of people from their homes.
Under the deal, the two sides have signed to ‘avoid’ further violence incitement and the formation of a combined task force from the two sides which would report to the central government of any ceasefire
violations.
The clashes that involved trucks mounted with machine guns and anti-aircraft rockets erupted after an argument involving the construction of a new road by Puntland in the town, which was halted by Galmudug forces.
The development is a major breakthrough which officials said could help ending the clashes that risked leading to clannish warfare in a country which is recovering from decades of civil war.
Galkayo town is divided into two zones, where the northern portion forms part of Puntland state, while its southern part is governed by the Galmudug administration.