Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia

Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia
Leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed
Founded 2007
Preceded by Islamic Courts Union
Headquarters Asmara (Sep. 2007–Jan. 2009)
Djibouti (June 2008–Jan. 2009)

The Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) was a Somali political party. A successor to the Islamic Courts Union, it was launched in September 2007.[1]

History of the ARS

Members of the Islamic Courts Union and Somali opposition leaders united to form a political party. Roughly 400 delegates, including former Islamic Courts Union, ICU Executive chairman Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, former TFG Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, and the former TFG Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Mohamed Farrah, approved a constitution and committee. A 191-member Central Committee was chaired by Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden. Hassan Dahir Aweys explicitly stated he did not hold any formal position in the Alliance.[2] Reporters at the Somali Congress for Liberation and Reconstitution in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea said the alliance would be unlikely to be Islamist-led as the opposition would be hoping to draw on the broad political support and fundraising opportunities of the Somali diaspora.[3]

The Djibouti peace agreement

Between May 31 and June 9, 2008, representatives of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia participated in a peace conference in Djibouti mediated by the United Nations Special Envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah. The conference ended with the announcement on June 9, 2008 that they had signed an 11-point peace agreement paving the way for "the cessation of all armed confrontation" across Somalia.

The peace agreement called for a 90-day ceasefire and set a withdrawal timetable for the Ethiopian troops protecting the TFG. According to the agreement, the two sides agreed to terminate "all acts of armed confrontation" and to "request the United Nations...to authorize and deploy an international stabilization force from countries that are friends of Somalia" excluding the neighboring countries. The peace pact also called for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops present in Somalia within a period of 120 days of the signing of this agreement.

Both Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and ARS Chairman Sharif Sheikh Ahmed welcomed the peace agreement as an "historic opportunity" to end Somalia's long conflict. However, ICU leader Hassan Dahir Aweys rejected the agreement, arguing that "no one authorized" the ARS delegates to participate at the Djibouti conference.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Our mission is liberation, says Somali Islamist leader". 22 May 2008.
  2. ↑ "BBC NEWS - Africa - Somali insurgents attack police". News.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "New Somali alliance threatens war". BBC. 12 September 2007.
  4. ↑ Archived August 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.