 BAIDOA: Embattled Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Monday appointed a new, scaled-down cabinet to replace a dissent-riddled, two-year-old government dissolved earlier this month.
| Goes along with his scaled-down milita and scaled-down land holdings. |
| “Gedi named the 31-strong slate as tensions rose anew between his weak transitional administration and Somalia's newly dominant Islamists...” |
Gedi named the 31-strong slate as tensions rose anew between his weak transitional administration and Somalia's newly dominant Islamists over fresh charges that neighboring Ethiopia has sent troops to support the government. The alleged presence of those soldiers along with disagreements over whether and how to engage with the Islamists had paralyzed Gedi's previous cabinet, which collapsed under mass resignations before being disbanded on August 7. The agreement to form a new government was part of an Ethiopian-mediated plan to salvage the administration whose limited authority is being challenged by the Islamists who control Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia. |