State leaders to meet in Kismayu next month amid frosty relations with Fed. Government

Federal Member state leaders will converge in the coastal city of Kismayu, the capital of Jubbaland state next month ahead of presidential elections in South West and Puntland states.

In an invitation to the FMS presidents, the Council for Inter-Governmental Cooperation (CIG) chairman Abdiweli Gaas who is also the president of Puntland said the meeting will take place September 3.

The meeting will focus on addressing issues of interest to the FMS and the country in general, the invite reads but noted the agenda will be prepared for distribution later by the secretariat.

The meeting is the third since the formation of the CIG, a forum for federal state presidents last year following a major fall out with the Federal Government over the Gulf Crisis in which majority state leaders backed the Saudi-UAE axis as the Federal Government said it would maintain a neutral stance.

The meeting comes ahead of crucial presidential elections in November for South West state and January 2019 for Puntland. Presidents Sharif Adan and Gaas of South West and Puntland respectively  have both indicated they will be defending their seats. The meeting also follows Jubbaland’s decision to turn back senior intelligence officials posted by the Federal Government to southerly coastal state last week.