Tuesday January 31, 2023
Baidoa (HOL) - Leaders of the Southwest regional states and opposition groups have reached a settlement over the
clash in late December that killed over ten people in Baidoa.
Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur Madobe, concluded the first phase of the South West Reconciliation Conference on Monday in Baidoa, the administrative capital of the South West regional state.
Southwest regional state leaders, opposition groups, federal government leaders, traditional elders, and religious leaders all attended the two-week meeting, which Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
opened.
Speaker Madobe was presented with a report by the conference's
technical committee and a committee chosen by the cultural elders.
As part of the settlement, the families of the victims in the gun battle were paid compensation in the form of blood money, which Speaker Madobe personally delivered. Those who were injured or experienced damage to their property were also compensated.
At least ten people were
killed in Baidoa on December 23 after Southwest security forces and militia loyal to regional opposition candidates clashed at the home of former federal finance minister Mohamed Adan Ibrahim Fargeti, where opposition-loyal militia gathered.
Southwest state lawmakers said that the federal government was responsible for the clash,
claiming that the National Army Forces were being used to foment unrest in the Southwest
The violence was sparked by a political stalemate over the constitutionality of Southwest President Abdiaziz Laftagareen's term extension. In 2019, Southwest parliament extended President Abdiaziz Laftagaren's term for one year, pushing his mandate expiry to December 19, 2023. However, the opposition opposed the president's term extension.
Days after the gunbattle, Southwest Minister for Information, Ilyas Ali Noor,
resigned from his cabinet post in protest and blamed Southwest's President Abdiaziz Laftagren for not respecting ongoing peace efforts.
The flare-up came as Baidoa, the administrative capital of Somalia's South West state, was one of the worst drought-affected areas in the country.
Lower House Speaker Sheikh Madobe said that the start of the second phase of the Southwest reconciliation meeting, which has not yet been scheduled, would focus on ensuring political stability and the fight against Al-Shabaab.