Somalia government and the breakaway Somaliland are set to hold peace talks in Switzerland, officials said.
Somaliland Foreign Minister Sa’aad Ali Shire told the media in Hargeisa, the capital of the breakaway state on Saturday, that the talks would be held soon, without giving specific dates, the East African reports.
According to Shire, Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and Muse Bihi Abdi of Somaliland are set for a preliminary meeting in Djibouti before the talks are held.
The two parties are meant to set the agenda for the talks to be held in Switzerland.
A London conference on Somalia in May 2013 welcomed the dialogue between the Federal Government and Somaliland in Ankara, Turkey in the preceding month, to clarify their future relationship, the report said.
While Mogadishu insists on the unity of Somalia as paramount, the leaders of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland want to secure secession it declared in May 1991.
Talks between Somaliland and Somalia started in 2012 following the election of President Silanyo from 2010 to 2017.
Source: CGTN Africa