President Kenyatta arrived at Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu and was received by his host President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud.
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Reports indicated that the ban was placed after Meru Governor, Peter Munya, breached territorial authority and protocol by visiting Hargeisia, Somaliland without informing Mogadishu, claims Munya has since dismissed. “It is great opportunity for Somalia to host such meeting because the country has never hosted global level meetings since 1974, and AU head of States had a summit in Mogadishu at that time”, Hadliye said earlier.
Somaliland and Puntland are breakaway states from Somalia and have been pushing for their independence and recognition by the United Nations.
KCB will be seeking to tap the highly underserved market following the Barclays Bank PLC’s plan to exit the African market. But Omer said this was the first summit gathering for about four decades, since the rule of President Siad Barre, whose toppling in 1991 was followed by two decades of conflict.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, chair of IGAD, said Somalia had made progress but more was needed. The summit was held just outside the perimeter at a nearby hotel.
East African leaders arrived in Somalia’s capital for talks on issues including South Sudan’s crisis, a sign of improving security in the Horn of African country that’s trying to emerge from decades of civil war and hold elections next month.
Ordinary Somalis were forced to walk around the capital as traffic was blocked from many streets.
Security in Mogadishu has been tightened, namely for fear of attacks from the al-Qaeda offshoot al-Shabaab, who have been extremely active in the region. But there has been a construction boom in recent years, that has seen new buildings erected, often financed by Somalis returning from overseas.
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The minister however decried security concerns citing Al-Shabaab terrorist group which has been fighting to topple the Western-backed government. The country is preparing for parliamentary and presidential elections in which new elected lawmakers will choose a new president on October 30.
