NAIROBI, 13 August 2003 — Somalia’s prime minister said yesterday he expected leaders to form a new government uniting Somalia’s many factions within two weeks, despite opposition from the country’s president.
Prime Minister Hassan Abshir Farah said he hoped President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan would participate in the planned government, which is due to replace an existing interim
Somalia has been riven by anarchy for 12 years. “Within a few days, a week or two weeks, we will form a new government,” Abshir Farah told reporters at the venue for peace talks at Mbagathi near the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
The talks aim to forge a new government to do a better job of reuniting Somalia than an existing Transitional National Government (TNG), established on Aug. 13, 2000 after a conference in Djibouti.
The TNG controls only slivers of territory and has made scant progress toward unifying the country of seven million, which has been carved into factions by rival warlords since the overthrow of former military ruler Siad Barre in 1991.
Abdiqassim stormed out of the conference and returned to Mogadishu last week, complaining the talks were taking what he called an anti-Islamic direction and saying delegates planned to deepen Somalia’s territorial divisions.
Abshir Farah said the conference would press on without Abdiqassim, reiterating his accusation that his former ally was planning to extend the life of the TNG beyond its expiry to prolong his term in office.
Abshir Farah said the TNG would continue to exist as a “caretaker” administration until the new government is formed. He declined to give an exact date for when it would take over.
Abdiqassim convened a meeting of the TNG’s Parliament in Mogadishu on Saturday which voted to dismiss Abshir Farah, but Abshir Farah said it had not achieved a quorum.
The peace talks, which began in October, group a wider array of clans, warlords and political forces than numerous previous attempts to reconcile Somalia, but various targets given by mediators for forming a new government have not been met.
The government of Abdiqassim, who has ties to various Arab states, has been accused by neighboring Ethiopia of trying to export radical Islam to the Horn of Africa. Abdiqassim denies the charge, accusing Ethiopia of backing his Somali rivals.
