MOGADISHU, 5 November 2004 — Somalis in the capital city, Mogadishu, yesterday welcomed the appointment of the new prime minister. The president of Somalia’s transitional federal government, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, on Wednesday named Ali Muhammad Geedi as prime minister. The appointment was made 10 days ahead of a deadline set by the country’s interim constitution for the president to name a prime minister.
Thousands of Somalis took to the streets in Mogadishu after they heard the appointment of the prime minister. Militia groups also fired heavy machine-guns into the air. “We don’t want any more fighting. We need peace and stability,” Anab Ibrahim, a mother of five, told Arab News on Wednesday night.
Geedi, 51, was a former professor of veterinary science at Somali National University. Since the collapse of Somali government in 1991, he has been involved in creating a viable market for Somali livestock and served as the chairman of Somalia’s NGO consortium.
He is a member of the Abdgal sub-clan of the main Hawiye clan, from the capital, Mogadishu. Some reports said that the appointment of prime minister was made after warlord Muhammad Omar Habeb vacated his parliamentary seat in favor of Geedi to avoid an article in the Somali interim charter, which specifies that Cabinet appointees must be members of Parliament.
Meanwhile, Yusuf began a maiden visit to Uganda yesterday to discuss security issues that must be resolved before his government can begin work in Mogadishu. “Though a government was put in place, what remains now is for the government to go back to Mogadishu and start work, but this cannot be done without security and a few other things,” Ugandan Regional Cooperation Minister Nsimye Ssebuturo told reporters in Kampala. Yusuf will have talks with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni, who is chairman of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, the regional group that mediated an end to 13 years of inter-clan warfare in Somalia.
