.Parliament meets for the first time inside Somalia

 Somalia's transitional parliament on Sunday began its first session inside Somalia, 19 months after it was formed in neighbouring Kenya.

The 210 lawmakers gathered in a grain silo-turned-temporary seat of parliament in the southern Somali town of Baidoa, using chairs and desks transported from Kenya by the United Nations.
The 275-member transitional legislature, which includes President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, last met in May in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The assembly's first meeting inside the country had been delayed by arguments over where it should take place and there were disputes over whether peacekeepers were needed to provide security for the government's return to Somalia.

The other side, The United Nations has welcomed the first sitting of the Transitional Federal Parliament inside Somalia taking place today in Baidoa.

“This is a very positive development we are witnessing here today,” said acting Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator Christian Balslev-Olesen. “It is a significant window of hope for peace and reconciliation that has not been seen by Somalis during the past 15 years, and we are privileged to be present and to support the process.”

The United Nations is providing logistical support to transport the Members of Parliament to Baidoa; sitting allowances; rehabilitation of, and equipment to the Parliament facility, rehabilitation of and equipment to the President’s, Prime Minister’s and Speaker’s offices; police stipends and provision of water and sanitation services.

The Extraordinary Session of Parliament has been supported by the Department for International Development (DFID), the European Commission (EC), Norway and the Swedish International Development

Somalia has not had an effective central government since clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Warlords then turned on each other, carving the country up into rival fiefdoms.
The transitional government, formed after two years of peace talks in Nairobi, raised hopes, but its members quickly split over which location in Somalia would serve as the most secure base.

Government members started moving from Kenya to Somalia in June, with some going to Mogadishu and others, who felt the capital was too unsafe, to Jowhar, 90 kilometres (60 miles) to the northwest.
Leaders agreed to hold yesterday's meeting in Baidoa, which is one of the largest towns in the country and is deemed to be more secure than the capital.