ABSTRACT
Following the withdrawal of the UN forces from Somalia in 1994, the civil war continued and the UN efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reconstruct the country's political system were put temporarily on hold. The declaration regarding the establishment of the Transitional National Government in August 2000 came after two months of discussions conducted in the framework of the Somali National Peace Conference held in the city of Arta in neighboring Djibouti. The Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council was an umbrella organization that incorporates the entities opposed to the national transitional government in Somalia. In late 1993 and early 1994, several conferences between faction leaders were held in Ethiopia and in different regions of Somalia. Somaliland is that region in the Horn of Africa, separated from the Arab world by the Gulf of Aden, that sits astride Djibouti to the west, Ethiopia to the south, and Italian Somalia to the east.
