IGAD foreign ministers were received at Mogadishu airport by outgoing Somali Foreign Minister Abdirahman Duale Beyle, several Somali MPs, and ambassadors from IGAD member states
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Foreign ministers from Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member states have arrived in Somali capital Mogadishu where they will participate in a one-day summit on Saturday.
IGAD foreign ministers were received at Mogadishu airport by outgoing Somali Foreign Minister Abdirahman Duale Beyle, several Somali MPs, and ambassadors from IGAD member states.
The delegation included the foreign ministers of Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda and Djibouti.
At a Friday press conference, Beyle said that the decision to hold the IGAD Summit in Mogadishu was "evidence of improved security in the country," adding that he hoped the summit would be held in a "peaceful atmosphere."
Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom, for his part, said he was "very pleased" to participate in the event, adding that Somalia had "made major achievements in terms of security."
Saturday's summit will be the first of its kind to be held in fractious Somalia since 1985, when Mogadishu last hosted an IGAD summit.
Somalia has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.
IGAD is an East African regional grouping based in Djibouti.