Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein dissolved cabinet on
Sunday, barely two weeks after five ministers quit his newly formed
government over its composition, according to reports reaching here
from the southern Somali town of Baidoa.
The reports said Hussein wanted to trim members the cabinet
where he would appoint half of the ministers from outside the
transitional parliament set up three years ago.
"After meeting my ministers I decided to form a new government,"
Hussein reportedly told a news conference in Baidoa, where the
parliament is based.
Awad Ashara, a Somali lawmaker, confirmed the new development,
saying Hussein promised to form a new cabinet with much fewer
members than the current 30.
"The international community expressed their displeasure with
the number of ministers chosen from outside the parliament,"
Hussein said.
Hussein was appointed in November to replace former prime
minister Ali Mohammed Gedi, who had been seen as failing to pacify
Somalia's main clans and sub-clans after many of them insisted on
being represented in the government.
Gedi had refused to negotiate with armed Islamists and other
opposition groups.
The newly appointed premier is from the Hawiye clan, the largest
in the capital Mogadishu, many members of which distrust President
Abdullahi Yusuf, from the rival Darod group.
The appointment of Hussein, who used to be a Somali Red Crescent
officer and was seen as a neutral political figure, came three
weeks after his predecessor Gedi quit under pressure over lack of
progress in building the transitional government.
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, who made the nomination, urged
Hussein to form a cabinet quickly.
Gedi is blamed for failing to quell the Islamist insurgency
which briefly controlled much of central and southern Somalia until
early this year. He is also blamed for inviting Ethiopian troops
onto Somali soil.
Islamist insurgents are battling the Ethiopian-backed government
forces in the capital and the UN says some 200,000 people have fled
their homes in the past two weeks.
Fighting between Islamist-led insurgents and elements of the
Ethiopian army for control of Mogadishu has intensified during the
recent past, forcing a million citizens to flee the city.
Somalia has not had a functioning national government since
former ruler Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2007)
