Hard-line Islamist leaders rejected a UN-brokered peace pact signed by the Somali government and some opposition figures, and vowed on Tuesday that war would continue. "We don't see that as a peace deal, we see it as a trap," Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys told Reuters by phone from Eritrea. "We encourage the insurgents and the Somali people not to be tired of combating the enemy."
Somalia's interim government and some members of the exiled Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) signed a deal in Djibouti late on Monday calling for the deployment of UN peacekeepers and agreeing to a ceasefire after one month. "The people have been waiting a long time, so we have a weight of responsibility on our shoulders," Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein said at Monday's ceremony.