President dissolves Somali government
By Hassan Yare
August 7, 2006
"Floods from the overflowing Dechatu river hit Dire Dawa town in the middle of Saturday night while residents were sleeping," police inspector Benyam Fikru told Reuters.
"The death toll has now reached 150."
BAIDOA, Somalia (Reuters) - Somalia's president on Monday dissolved the government's "bloated" cabinet, saying it failed to deliver during its two-year tenure and ordered a new one named within a week.
The move follows Ethiopian-led crisis talks that produced a deal on Sunday by Somalia's three top interim leaders to end a rift hampering the government's efforts to deal with powerful Islamists that oppose it and threaten its limited authority.
"The bloated cabinet of (Prime Minister) Ali Mohamed Gedi's government did not do anything during its tenure," President Abdullahi Yusuf told parliament, meeting in an old warehouse in the provincial town of Baidoa -- its only stronghold at home.
"From today onwards, the government has been dissolved, only the prime minister will remain."
Gedi is to appoint a new 31-minister cabinet within a week after consulting parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan and Yusuf, the president said.
Yusuf urged lawmakers to approve the choices: "We need to have competent ministers. I will reject incompetent persons."
The old cabinet had 42 ministers but only about half the posts were filled, since four were fired, 16 quit and one was murdered.
The government had been split when Yusuf and Adan had opposed the prime minister's move to postpone proposed talks with the Islamists, who seized the capital Mogadishu and a strategic swathe of southern Somalia in June.
'ALL EYES ON GEDI'
The pressure is now squarely on Gedi, who narrowly survived a no-confidence vote on July 30, to put together a team that would keep the Islamists -- who want to rule through sharia law -- satisfied.
One Western diplomat warned that any move without consulting the Islamists was likely doomed.
"If they are only talking between themselves, then it is probably not good. They have to get the Mogadishu people on board, otherwise it is not a good development," the diplomat said.
Somali parliament member Abdallah Haji said it would be a good start if Gedi could put together a competent team.
"All eyes are on him to see how he will manage the challenge. It is a test of his leadership and character," Haji told Reuters.
Somalia's government, based in Baidoa, has Western backing but virtually no authority over the Horn of Africa country of 10 million.
Forty senior officials had already deserted the government before the weekend's talks, many blaming Gedi's reluctance to reach out to the Islamists.
On Sunday, a government spokesman said the imminent cabinet re-shuffle would be based on Somalia's clan power-sharing formula, the backbone of the peace process which produced the government in Kenya in late 2004.
Ethiopia is the government's strongest regional ally but reports that it has sent troops to protect the administration has sparked a stand-off with the Islamists.
The Islamists' most powerful leader, hardline cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, has said his group will not negotiate unless Ethiopia withdraws its troops.
The rise of the Islamists has challenged the authority of the government, the 14th bid to restore central rule to Somalia since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu and Bryson Hull in Nairobi)
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August 7, 2006
"Floods from the overflowing Dechatu river hit Dire Dawa town in the middle of Saturday night while residents were sleeping," police inspector Benyam Fikru told Reuters.
"The death toll has now reached 150."
BAIDOA, Somalia (Reuters) - Somalia's president on Monday dissolved the government's "bloated" cabinet, saying it failed to deliver during its two-year tenure and ordered a new one named within a week.
The move follows Ethiopian-led crisis talks that produced a deal on Sunday by Somalia's three top interim leaders to end a rift hampering the government's efforts to deal with powerful Islamists that oppose it and threaten its limited authority.
"The bloated cabinet of (Prime Minister) Ali Mohamed Gedi's government did not do anything during its tenure," President Abdullahi Yusuf told parliament, meeting in an old warehouse in the provincial town of Baidoa -- its only stronghold at home.
"From today onwards, the government has been dissolved, only the prime minister will remain."
Gedi is to appoint a new 31-minister cabinet within a week after consulting parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan and Yusuf, the president said.
Yusuf urged lawmakers to approve the choices: "We need to have competent ministers. I will reject incompetent persons."
The old cabinet had 42 ministers but only about half the posts were filled, since four were fired, 16 quit and one was murdered.
'ALL EYES ON GEDI'
The pressure is now squarely on Gedi, who narrowly survived a no-confidence vote on July 30, to put together a team that would keep the Islamists -- who want to rule through sharia law -- satisfied.
One Western diplomat warned that any move without consulting the Islamists was likely doomed.
"If they are only talking between themselves, then it is probably not good. They have to get the Mogadishu people on board, otherwise it is not a good development," the diplomat said.
Somali parliament member Abdallah Haji said it would be a good start if Gedi could put together a competent team.
"All eyes are on him to see how he will manage the challenge. It is a test of his leadership and character," Haji told Reuters.
Somalia's government, based in Baidoa, has Western backing but virtually no authority over the Horn of Africa country of 10 million.
Forty senior officials had already deserted the government before the weekend's talks, many blaming Gedi's reluctance to reach out to the Islamists.
On Sunday, a government spokesman said the imminent cabinet re-shuffle would be based on Somalia's clan power-sharing formula, the backbone of the peace process which produced the government in Kenya in late 2004.
Ethiopia is the government's strongest regional ally but reports that it has sent troops to protect the administration has sparked a stand-off with the Islamists.
The Islamists' most powerful leader, hardline cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, has said his group will not negotiate unless Ethiopia withdraws its troops.
The rise of the Islamists has challenged the authority of the government, the 14th bid to restore central rule to Somalia since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu and Bryson Hull in Nairobi)
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© COPYRIGHT 20001-2006ETHIOMEDIA.COM. EMAIL: webmaster@ethiomedia.com
