A section of the leadership of Somali moderate Islamist group Ahlu Sunna wal-Jamea (ASWJ) on Monday hit at foreign countries accusing them for forcing an agreement between the group and the Transitional Federal Government.

A major role

Speaking in Nairobi on Monday, the group’s first vice chairman Sheikh Hassan Sheik Abdi said external forces played a major role in the signing of the peace agreement in Addis Ababa last week.

Sheikh Abdi accused the group’s chairman, Sheikh Mahammud Sheikh Hassan, of leading a non-representative delegation to the signing ceremony in Addis, adding that he had lost legitimacy among the group’s members.

“The fact is, neither the Transitional Federal Government nor Ahlu Sunna requested each other’s entry into the agreement. The world needs to be told who started and why,” he said.

Sheikh Abdi termed the pact as ‘premature’ saying it came at a time when the group’s leadership was planning on how to engage external players, a process which was yet to be completed. “We were all surprised. Then we were busy arranging ourselves as a group, adopting a new strategy paper and preparing a new constitution. These, needed a general conference which had been contemplated two months ago,” he said.

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Daily Nation