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Leaders of the Prosperity Party (PP) in Somali and the senior opposition Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) have made further agreement today on July 27, 2020, to cooperate in strengthening peace, stability and good governance in the Somali state, that have been struggling with security issues for the past decades.
ONLF on its official Twitter page notified that ONLF chairman Abdirahman Mahdi, Somali State President Mustafa Omar of PP with other members of both parties had “a breakfast meeting” at the Region’s capital on which the joint committee discussed on the ways to “iron out how to cooperate and implement the decisions regarding strengthening peace and development.”
Established in 1984 ONLF had been in the armed struggle against the federal government of Ethiopia for self-determination of Somalis failing to reach agreements and the government labeled it as a terrorist organization.
The front had multiple attacks for years on the government forces led by Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) claiming that Ethiopia has occupied Somali denying the representation of the ruling regional party Somali People’s Democratic Party in the federal government.
The struggle continued until ONLF signed a peace agreement with the government following the arrival of the reformist regional president Mustafa Omar in 2018 overthrowing his ex Abdi Illey who was imprisoned in the same year for accusations of severe human rights abuses in the region.
On Dec. 2018 leaders of ONLF had also returned from their exile in Eritrea with a warm welcome from the government officials including Mustafa and ceased its hostilities, with former fighters having a process of societal reintegration.
The agreement of both parties, which has been further renewed during their latest meeting has promised stable peace for people of the Somali region which was considered for years as a ‘conflict zone.’
