A former soldier, rebel and warlord was sworn in Thursday as the new president of Somalia in the latest attempt to unite the nation under a central government for the first time since 1991. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed took the oath of office from the speaker of the new parliament, Shariif Hassan Sheikh Aden. The heads of government from Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, Yemen attended the ceremony and voiced their support for Yusuf.
A former colonel in the Somalia army during the 1960s, Yusuf was jailed by former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre when he refused to cooperate in a coup d'etat in 1969. With Ethiopian support, he launched a rebellion against Barre during the 1980s. There have been 13 previous peace efforts and two previous governments were formed, but they never managed to take effective control over most of the country. The new government has no civil service, treasury or even buildings to meet in. Yusuf, 70, has recently led the breakaway Somali region of Puntland, where his regime received support from neighboring Ethiopia. He has opposed past peace efforts and has suppressed any opposition in Puntland. He was elected president on Oct. 10 by a new, clan-based parliament that was the product of two years of peace talks in neighboring Kenya. The 275 lawmakers, who were appointed by their clans, elected Yusuf from 28 candidates in three rounds of balloting. "The cost of 14 years of war have been enormous," Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki told the 4,000 people gathered for the ceremony at a sports stadium in Nairobi. "The task before you is huge. The people of Somalia and the entire international community look upon you to spearhead the process of reconciliation and reconstruction."
| This is one of those things that you just assume will never come, then it takes you by surprise. We'll see if they actually manage to run a government or if things go to hell again. I wish them luck. |
Yusuf will nominate Somalia's prime minister, who then will name a Cabinet. The members of the transitional parliament have an unwritten agreement to fill key government and legislative posts along clan lines. Yusuf is a member of one of Somalia's four biggest clans, the Darod. He is expected to choose a prime minister from another big clan, the Hawiye, which controls Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. |