Issue 236

Washington, August 3, 2006 – The United States on Thursday called on its partners to help shore up Somalia's fragile government after the prime minister refused to resign despite a mass defection of government ministers.

The shaky administration absorbed a new blow on Thursday with Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's decision which followed the defections of 38 ministers who left the 102-member cabinet last week.

"I would point out that resignations do occur in all types of government," State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said.

McCormack said Washington was working with a group of countries including Britain , Sweden , Italy , Norway , Tanzania and the European Union to bolster the Baidoa-based government, but did not give details.

"What we want to see is an effort by the international community to see what we can do to strengthen those federal institutions that exist right now. But it's a tough problem," he said.

Somali President Abdillahi Yusuf Ahmed and parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden held private consultations on the crisis earlier on Thursday.

The two have disagreed with Gedi on whether to engage in peace talks with the powerful Islamic militia that now controls the capital Mogadishu.

Islamist militias, grouped under the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS), hold sway in much of southern Somalia. They seized Mogadishu in early June after routing US-backed warlords in four months of fighting that claimed at least 360 lives.

The deployment of the Ethiopian forces in Somalia, ostensibly to protect Gedi's government from a potential attack by the Islamists, sharply increased tensions between the Somali factions.

The United Nations, the United States and other Western countries have warned that any interference by Somalia's neighbors might scupper efforts to achieve lasting peace in the country, which has been without a functioning central authority since the overthrow of Dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.

Source: AFP

Home | Contact us | Links | Archives