By: ABDIKADIR OKASH (@abdikadirokash)
MOGADISHU—Preparations in high gear in Mogadishu ahead of the 5th September IGAD conference where leaders would meet in the Somali capital to discuss security and Somalia election due on October.
The meeting comes barely a week after the Somali president met the ministerial body of the regional block.
Abdisalan Hadliye, the Foreign Affairs minister said Somali government was ready to play host to IGAD leaders. He added that the conference would take place in an unspecified location in Mogadishu.
Somalia is dealing with the second deadliest armed group in Africa after the Nigerian-based Boko Haram—Al Shabab. The group has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaida and has fought the Mogadishu administration since the group was driven out of the capital and recently in 2012 at the port city of Kismayu.
Although much of the threat of Al Shabab has been weakened, the group has lately resorted to attacking the civilian population, although a number of their planned attacks were neutralised and the masterminds arrested.
If Mogadishu successfully holds the September IGAD conference, it would serve as a victory for the country.
The governmnet is ready and would do everything in its power to make the conference a successful feat, Hadliye stated.
“We are prepared to hold it and we will do everything in our means to have a successful conference,” he said.
“We want to show the world that Mogadishu is a safe city,” he added.
The conference comes at the backdrop of the oncoming elections in the country that is reeling from two decades of civil strife and political uncertainty.
Some of the agendas of this year conference will be the elections in Somalia which will take place on October, weeks after the five-year term of the current government headed by Hassan Sheikh Mohamud lapses.
Mogadishu, unlike yesteryear, is relatively calm save for few cases of bombing. There is atmosphere of civility and business is booming with hospitality and education leading the new dawn.
