Saturday, December 30, 2006
AFGOYE, Somalia (AFP) - Somalia's President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed has travelled to Afgoye near the capital to prepare his entrance into Mogadishu itself where government troops forced out Islamist fighters three days ago, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.
"I'm not going today," the president said, without elaborating.
He was met in Afgoye, 20 kilometes (12 miles) outside Mogadishu, by Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who drove in from the capital where he had made a triumphant entrance Friday after nine days of fighting, claiming total victory over rival Islamists and saying his Ethiopian military allies would stay there for as long as needed.
Yusuf flew in from Baidoa, seat of the country's weak transition government about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of the capital, on board an Ethiopian military helicopter that set down at a military base on the outskirts of Afgoye.
The two leaders were reported to be in a meeting inside the aircraft, which was surrouned by soldiers.
Source: AFP, Dec 30, 2006