Somali PM forms new national unity government
February 21, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) — The newly appointed Somali Prime Minister has formed yesterday his new cabinet dominated by former opposition figures including a former militia leader who is appointed as minister of interior.
Prime Minister Omar Abdirshid Shermarke designed on Friday the national unity government comprising 35 ministers. The large cabinet includes members of the previous government and ministers from the former opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) led by the current president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
However two key ministries the Interior and Finance have been attributed to the ARs members. Abdulkadir Ali Omar, the new interior minister, is a close ally of the president Ahmed and is the deputy chairman of the Islamic Courts Union. The former Speaker of courts parliament before the entry of the Ethiopian troops in the capital in 2006, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan became the new Minister of Finance and the deputy prime minister.
The new foreign minister, Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar, is the elder brother of award-winning journalist Rageh Omaar. He has no link with the ARS. The cabinet also includes three women appointed at the ministers of Health, Family Affairs, and Rural Development.
The new government was sworn in on Saturday. Its mandate runs until August 2011.
The new cabinet faces the daunting task of making peace with hardliner Islamist groups such as the Al-Shabaab, which is listed by the U.S. as a terrorist group, and Hezbul Islam which are opposed to the new Somali government and vowed to fight it.
The UN Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah on Saturday has welcomed the formation of the new Somali cabinet. He is happy that the new government would return to Mogadishu this weekend to start work on alleviating the plight of their compatriots.
“This cabinet is a healthy combination of experience and youth and I welcome it. The security on the ground in Mogadishu has improved and I would like to praise the work of Somalis to bring this about,” he said.
But analysts fear that the appointment of the ARS members at the key post could cause power struggle in the future because the members of the former Somali transitional government would find it difficult to deal with them.
(ST)