Four more ministers resigned from Somalia's Western-backed government yesterday, in a move that may ultimately clear the way for rival Islamists to take ministerial posts. Minister of Minerals and Water Mohamud Salad Nur and three other assistant ministers announced their resignation less than a week after 18 senior officials also quit, dealing a blow to the fragile interim government. | “The cabinet originally comprised 42 ministers, eight of whom have quit in the past week.” |
"This is our decision because this cabinet has failed the reason for which it was established. It has failed to reconcile the Somali people," said Sayeed Hassan Shire, an assistant minister who resigned. The cabinet originally comprised 42 ministers, eight of whom have quit in the past week. But government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said the posts would not stay vacant for long.
"Their positions will be filled immediately, maybe within a week's time," Dinari said. Diplomats say power-sharing with the Islamists is the best way of averting a slide to war in the lawless Horn of Africa country, which has been deprived of effective central rule since warlords ousted the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. |