Somali govt crisis deepens as warlords want president impeached

NAIROBI, March 23 (AFP) — The crisis over the relocation from exile of Somalia’s transitional government deepened Wednesday as powerful warlords said they would move to impeach President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

Warlords controlling Somalia’s 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 told AFP, 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 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 northeastern 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 destabilizing the 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 neighbors, 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 president has clearly violated the charter,” said one source close to the warlords.

The warlords’ decision to initiate no-confidence proceedings follows the fistfight in parliament and two failed attempts by Gedi this week to press the cabinet on reaching a consensus, despite donor pressure to resolve the crisis.

It was not immediately clear when the motion would be introduced but the deputy speaker of the parliament, Mohammed Omar Dalha, said lawmakers would consider it as long as it is filed procedurally.

“If it is legal, we shall debate it,” he told AFP.

Meanwhile, Ato and other warlords from the Hawiye clan that dominates Mogadishu are moving ahead with plans to set up administrative offices in the capital over the objections of Yusuf and Gedi, officials said.

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.