Somali MPs resignations rise

2006-08-03 14:14

Mohamed Olad Hassan

Baidoa - Two more ministers resigned from Somalia's transitional government, saying they supported former colleagues who had left the government because it seemed unwilling to reconcile with Islamic militants who had taken over the capital.

The resignations late on Wednesday of the health minister and a deputy minister brought to 36 the number of ministers who had left Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's government in the past week.

Previous reports that 29 ministers had resigned didn't include five additional ministers who had also resigned.

Health minister Abdiaziz Sheikh Yusuf said: "We have resigned to join our friends who resigned earlier because we agree with them."

Gedi's govt 'not threatened'

The former ministers and deputy ministers had not resigned their parliamentary seats.

For the time being, Gedi's government was not threatened because he had the support of more than half the 42 full ministers, as stipulated in Somalia's transitional charter.

Of the 36 who had resigned so far, only 14 were full ministers. The rest were deputy ministers.

The leader of the Islamic courts, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, said late on Tuesday that the former ministers were welcome in his group.

Somalia's transitional government was formed two years ago with the support of the United Nations to help the Horn of Africa country emerge from 16 years of anarchy and violence. The government had a five-year term.

However, President Abdullahi Yusuf and Gedi had been unable to assert their authority beyond their current base in Baidoa, 250km from the capital, Mogadishu.

Govt wracked by infighting

Somalia had not had an effective central government since warlords toppled longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and later turned against each other, to protect clan-based fiefdoms in this country of an estimated seven million people.

The transitional government also had been wracked by infighting. On Wednesday, Yusuf said a delegation was heading to Khartoum, Sudan, for peace talks with the militants.

But, Gedi said the Arab League mediators had postponed the talks, and it was unclear whether the militants even planned to show up.

As Islamic militants seized the capital and much of southern Somalia in recent months, the transitional government could only watch helplessly.

The Islamists had been imposing strict religious courts, raising fears of an emerging Taliban-style regime.

The United States accused the group of harbouring al-Qaeda leaders responsible for deadly bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

American officials and other Western powers had cautioned outsiders against meddling in Somalia, which had no single ruling authority and could be manipulated by anyone with money and guns.

- AP