Crisis brewing in Somalia

2005-03-23 10:21

Nairobi - The crisis over the relocation of Somalia's transitional government deepened on Wednesday as powerful warlords said they would move to impeach President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

Warlords controlling the bullet-scarred capital of Mogadishu said they would introduce a no-confidence motion against Yusuf in parliament and seek his removal for allegedly violating the lawless country's transitional charter.

"A vote of no confidence on the president is coming ... there is enough evidence to impeach him," said Somali construction minister and Mogadishu warlord Osman Ali Ato.

"We are fed up with him," he said, maintaining that his faction had enough support in the 275-member clan-based Somali parliament to sack the president over plans for the government's eventual move from exile in Kenya.

Ato said pro-impeachment MPs were meeting in Nairobi to discuss strategy for the no-confidence motion while Yusuf, himself a former warlord from the north-eastern region of Puntland, is at a meeting of Arab leaders in Algeria.

Information Minister Mahmoud Jama decried the threat to impeach Yusuf, saying the warlords were bent on destabilising the government, which has been rocked by infighting in recent months.

"This is a propaganda move aimed at creating confusion," he said.

The warlords have been piling pressure on Yusuf ever since he took office in October following a vote by the parliament.

Sources close to the warlords said they had decided to pursue impeachment now because of what they called Yusuf's blatant violation of the transitional charter in planning for the government's move to Somalia.

Despite widespread opposition in Somalia and deep international concerns, Yusuf and prime minister Mohammed Ali Gedi are insisting on the participation of the country's immediate neighbours, particularly Ethiopia, in a regional peacekeeping mission aimed at helping the government establish its authority.

The dispute over the participation of Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya in the peacekeeping force degenerated into a bloody brawl between lawmakers in parliament last week and brought other disagreements to a head.

The second issue of contention is Yusuf and Gedi's controversial plan to have the government relocate to the towns of Jowhar and Baidoa instead of the capital Mogadishu, where there are major security problems.

The warlords argue that both positions are illegal under the 2003 charter that says the presence of foreign troops in Somalia must be endorsed by parliament and that Mogadishu is the nation's administrative capital.

The Horn of Africa country has been in chaos without any functioning central authority since the ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 turned the nation into a patchwork of fiefdoms ruled by warlords. - AFP

- SAPA