Somalia's government announced that the the inter-regional state formation conference for Hiiraan and its neighboring Middle Shabelle region would start in the agricultural town of Jowhar, the provincial capital of Middle Shabelle region next week.

The development comes in the backdrop of a new opposition by Hiiraan elders who demanded that the conference be held in Beledweyne, the region’s provincial capital, dismissing the president’s proposal of instead holding it in Jowhar.

 Somalia’s interior minister Abdirahman Mohamed Hussein who’s leading the government’s new federalism system initiative announced that the conference would open in Jowhar town next week, however, he declined to specify the date.

"The conference will start next week – we shall advise about the exact date of the conference later.” He told reporters in Jowhar town Tuesday.

 

He urged leaders and elders from the two regions to help fast-track in completing the process, by suggesting 20 February 2016 deadline to elect a new regional president who would have to attend a planned conference for the country’s stakeholder which would take place in Istanbul late February.

 

Despite the announcement, elders in Hiiraan region boycotted the conference this week, accusing the president of securing an ‘inconclusive’ endorsement from ‘rogue’ elders who  do’ ‘not represent’ the region’s traditional elders, leaving behind the 63-member of the region’s elders  board.

 

Mr. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has met elders and politicians in the region last week who endorsed his bid of holding the conference in Jowhar while Beledweyne will have to be picked as the proposed state’s regional capital.

 

Political analysts have earlier pointed out complexities surrounding the state's formation process, given lack of consensus, mistrust and rivalry among clans in the two regions.

 

Despite challenges on the conference’s venue and power sharing arrangements, analysts also warned that the ‘apparent’ controversy would further chip away at the government’s efforts to bring the two Sides on the table to neutralize their political tensions if not handled well.