President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo of the Federal Government of Somalia held a closed-door meeting with President Ahmed Islam Madobe of Jubbaland on Friday night.
Reports from Villa Somalia, where the meeting reportedly took place, indicate that Farmaajo promised to remove government troops from the Gedo region.
On Tuesday, Madobe said that the talks between him, Farmaajo, and President Said Abdullahi Deni of Puntland would only proceed if the government pulled out its troops from Gedo.
The two leaders agreed to form a joint committee that would discuss the withdrawal process.
With the troops about to be removed, Farmaajo would have met one of the tough conditions Deni and Madobe issued to him early this week.
Among others, they asked Farmaajo to pull out his troops from Gedo. Deni and Madobe also demanded the presence of the other leaders of Federal Member States at the Mogadishu talks.
In March this year, Farmaajo’s administration deployed over 700 government troops in the troubled region to maintain security.