Representatives of Somalia's civil society warned Tuesday of a worsening humanitarian crisis and called for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops, saying their departure would accelerate a political settlement of the country's 18-year conflict, the Associated Press reported. The representatives from nine groups met members of the U.N. Security Council, who came to Djibouti to encourage Somalia's transitional government and an opposition alliance to hold direct peace talks. Britain's U.N. ambassador John Sawers and South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, who are co-leading the Security Council trip to Djibouti, reiterated at the end that both the government and the opposition want Ethiopian troops to withdraw. The issue, they said, was the «sequencing» of when and under what conditions during the peace process a withdrawal should take place.
