Twelve Ethiopian-Somali clans have reportedly agreed to organize themselves under a single political group. A conference has been scheduled for July in Dre Dawa to draft the group’s political program and establish a committee to promote development and humanitarian assistance in drought and war-ravaged ethnic Somali areas.

In a resolution adopted last month, clan leaders promised to insure safe passage for United Nations convoys transporting relief supplies to famine victims and refugees in eastern Ethiopia.

Bandit attacks on relief supply trucks and the killing of foreign aid workers in eastern Ethiopia in recent months have severely disrupted relief to hundreds of thousands of ethnic Somalis.