Somalia - Government
	In April 1992 the SNF advanced on Mogadishu, with Siad Barre apparently intending to recapture the capital. Forces of the SNF came to within 40 km of the capital, but Gen. Aidid´s forces decisively repelled them and pursued them to the south of the country. At the end of April the USC captured the town of Garba Harre, in the south-west, which had served as Siad Barre´s base since his overthrow. Siad Barre fled, with about 200 supporters, to Kenya. (However, Siad Barre was refused political asylum in Kenya, and in May he moved to Nigeria, where he died in exile in January 1995.) International mediation efforts continued, and in March 1997 representatives of Somali fractions participated in talks in Cairo; Egypt, under the auspices of the Egyptian Government and the Arab League. In May Mi ´ Ato´ and Hussein Aidid were reported to have reaffirmed their commitment to the Nairobi agreement, during a meeting held in San´a, Yemen. Later in the month Aidid and Mi Mabdi signed a reconciliation agreement in Cairo. In july 98 a controversial conference in northeastern Somalia has elected a ´president´ and a ´vice-president´. The 70-day conference concluded in Garowe District of Nugal region, electing Colonel Abdullahi Yussuf Ahmed and Mohamed Abdi Hashi as ´president and vice-president´ respectively. Nearly 300 people from various sectors of the northeastern communities attended the meeting aimed at establishing a local government as Puntland. In December, moreover, at the culmination of negotiations that began in November, 26 Somali faction leaders (including Aidid and Ali Mahdi) signed an accord in Cairo establishing an end to all hostilities and providing for the eventual formation of a transitional govemment, charged with holding a general election within three years. The agreement was opposed by Aden Abdullahi Noor and Abdullai Youssef Mohamed (representing the Darod clan), who withdrew from the talks prior to their conclusion. In April 1988 a decade of hostile relations between Somalia and Ethiopia, following the war in 1977-78 over the Ogaden area of Ethiopia (which is inhabited by ethnic Somalis), ended with a peace accord. It was agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations, to withdraw troops from border areas and to exchange prisoners of war. Following the overthrow of the Mengistu regime in May 1991, the new Government in Ethiopia declared itself neutral with regard to the factions fighting for control of Somalia. In early 1992 a delegation from Eritrea, which had declared its independence from Ethiopia in 1991, undertook extensive discussions with clan leaders from both sides of the conflict in Mogadishu, in an attempt to ease the crisis. Ethiopia hosted peace conferences for the warring Somali factions in 1993 and in 1996 and 1997. The Egyptian and Kenyan authorities also fostered peace initiatives for Somalia in the late 1990s.