Minister for Foreign Affairs Emma Bonino met today at the foreign ministry in Rome with Mahboub Maalim, Executive Secretary of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional institution that groups the countries of the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda and Eritrea) and is active in one of the most unstable areas of the continent.
Maalim expressed his warm thanks for Italy’s role and contribution to IGAD’s efforts to revitalise and extend its contribution on the most important regional political dossiers.
On the Somalia situation, the executive secretary outlined existing problems and asked for Italy’s continued support for the government’s efforts to stabilise the country so as to be able to hold general elections within a reasonable.
Minister Bonino underscored that the Horn of Africa was a priority area in Italian foreign policy, adding her wish to convene a meeting of the ministers of the IGAD Partners Forum in the margins of the next UN General Assembly with a view to supporting IGAD’s role in the stabilisation of Somalia.
