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Somali
ministers quit as government
rift deepens
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 BAIDOA,
Somalia(August 4,2008) - Two thirds of Somalia's cabinet
ministers resigned on Saturday, officials said, widening a rift between
the president and prime minister that threatens to wreck the interim
government.
The 10 ministers who quit were all allies of President Abdullahi Yusuf,
who has appeared increasingly at odds with Prime Minister Nur Hassan
Hussein. This week, Yusuf revoked an order by Hussein sacking Mogadishu's
powerful mayor. "I have resigned because the government has failed
to implement its programmes and has gone against the charter,"
Khadija Mohammed Diriye, former family affairs minister, told Reuters
in Baidoa, where parliament sits.
She said 10 of the cabinet's 15 ministers, four of them from overseas,
had tendered their resignations.
In Mogadishu, Hussein said the resignations would have no impact on
the work of the interim government, which has struggled to impose
its authority on the chaotic Horn of Africa nation since coming to
power at the start of last year.
"The resignations will not affect the government but it might
have an effect on the recent peace agreement reached between the opposition
and the government in Djibouti," he told a news conference.
One Member of Parliament who asked not to be named said one group
of lawmakers were calling on Hussein to resign over alleged financial
irregularities in his administration.
Hussein said he would not quit. "I have told them if my position
is an obstacle towards achieving peace in Somalia then I will honourably
tender my resignation, but I will not resign because of these issues,"
he said.
At the centre of the growing tension between Hussein and Yusuf is
a former warlord and close Yusuf ally, Mohamed Dheere.
Hussein sacked Dheere as mayor and governor of the capital this week,
accusing him of misusing public funds and blaming him for mounting
insecurity.
Yusuf revoked the order on Thursday, officials said.
DHEERE BATTLING ISLAMISTS Dheere's fighters have been battling Islamist
rebels waging an Iraq-style insurgency of roadside bombs, mortar blasts
and assassinations against the government and its Ethiopian allies.
The Asmara-based opposition Alliance For the Reliberation of Somalia
(ARS) said the government would now be vulnerable.
"We urge all Somali Muslims to fight and uproot the Ethiopians
and the so-called Somali government that are now weak," ARS spokesman
Hassan Mahdi told Reuters by phone. Mediators however were trying
to capitalise on a truce signed at U.N.-hosted peace talks in Djibouti
in June between the government and some of the opposition.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the U.N. special envoy for Somalia, expressed
concern and urged all parties to work together.
"The Somali people knew there would be challenges on the path
to peace," he said in a statement. "The authorities should
remain focused on peace ... We must keep moving forward to ensure
the agreement is fully implemented as soon as possible."
The interim administration is the 14th attempt at forming a central
government since warlords toppled a military dictator in 1991, plunging
the nation into crisis.
The latest violence has killed more than 8,000 civilians since early
last year and driven 1 million from their homes.
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