Somali PM names new cabinet; Ethiopia denies troop reports

Aug 21, 2006 (BAIDOA) — Embattled Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi named a new Cabinet Monday, officials said, two weeks after the previous one was dismissed.

Gedi’s move is part of a deal aimed at healing divisions in the weakened transitional government, which is facing a strong challenge from the Islamic courts who control most of southern Somalia and the capital, Mogadishu.

The new Cabinet has 31 ministers, government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said.

President Abdullahi Yusuf sacked the previous Cabinet on Aug. 7 and said that within a week Gedi would name a leaner, better qualified one to resolve differences in the government and prepare it to counter an armed Islamic courts group’s bid to take over the country.

It wasn’t clear why Gedi didn’t name the new Cabinet by Aug. 14.

Yusuf has approved the new Cabinet, said Dahir Mirreh Jibreel, Yusuf’s chief of staff, speaking in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya.

Under Somalia’s transitional charter, the president is supposed to approve any Cabinet ministers named by the prime minister. After receiving presidential approval, Somalia’s transitional parliament then has to vet the new Cabinet ministers.

On Monday, Ethiopia, which is allied to Yusuf’s government, denied its troops had entered Somalia Sunday and reached the southern town of Baidoa, where the government is based.

“No Ethiopian troops have gone into Somalia,” said Foreign Affairs spokesman Solomon Abebe in Addis Ababa, the capital of neighboring Ethiopia.

Jibreel also denied the claims.

Officials and eyewitnesses said Ethiopian troops reached Baidoa Sunday in a move likely to stoke tensions with the Islamic militiamen who oppose Ethiopia’s influence in the country.

A rift within the government over how to respond to the growing influence of Islamic militants had led to the dismissal of the previous Cabinet after 40 Cabinet and junior ministers resigned between July and August.

It is still unclear whether the new Cabinet will take part in talks with the Islamic courts group, scheduled to take place in Khartoum, Sudan on Aug. 31.

Somalia hasn’t had a national army or police force since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, pulling the country into anarchy.

In June, Islamic militiamen took over Mogadishu and then seized control of much of southern Somalia. Yusuf’s government has been unable to assert its authority beyond Baidoa.

The U.S. accuses the Islamists of harboring al-Qaida leaders responsible for deadly bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

(AP/ST)