SOMALIA: Somalia Ppresident Abdullahi Yusuf appoints city administrators in attempt to bring order back to Mogadishu

Record ID: 439011

  • Title: SOMALIA: Somalia Ppresident Abdullahi Yusuf appoints city administrators in attempt to bring order back to Mogadishu
  • Date: 15th January 2007
  • Summary: (W3) MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (JANUARY 15, 2007)(REUTERS) PRESIDENT ABDULLAHI YUSUF AND NEW MOGADISHU MAYOR AND DEPUTIES SEATED TOGETHER (SOUNDBITE)(Somali) SOMALI PRESIDENT, ABDULLAHI YUSUF SAYING: "We realized that there is a problem if we do not establish the administration in Mogadishu and security is not in the hands of the government, and now your responsibility is to co-ordinate between the capital and central government." PRESIDENT SHAKING HANDS WITH THE NEW MOGADISHU ADMINISTRATORS (SOUNDBITE)(Somali) NEW MOGADISHU MAYOR, ADDE HASSAN ALI SAYING: "I want to announce that Mogadishu today has entered a new phase and I expect Mogadishu people to give us a helping hand." MORE CLAN ELDERS ENTERING OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT FOR CONSULTATIONS
  • Embargoed: 30th January 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6F8MDN8KZK04SUPWV7KORK311
  • Story Text: The Somali government is seeking to install itself in Mogadishu -- one of the world's most dangerous cities -- and faces a huge challenge to bring peace and security to a nation without effective central rule since a dictator was ousted in 1991.
    President Abdullahi Yusuf on Monday (January 15) appointed a mayor and three other officials to administer the capital.
    "We realized that there is a problem if we do not establish the administration in Mogadishu and security is not in the hands of the government, and now your responsibility is to co-ordinate between the capital and central government." he told the officials moments after they were appointed.
    Somali gunmen fired at a convoy of Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu in the latest attack on forces backing the government, threatening efforts to restore effective rule in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.
    The attack was late on Sunday (January 14) in the northern Arafat area where Ethiopian soldiers hours earlier had helped government troops seize heavy guns, explosives and an armoured car.
    Residents fear Mogadishu could slide back into the anarchy that gripped the city after 1991 and await to see whether the government can impose the relative stability experienced under the Islamists' strict six-month rule.
    Adde Hassan Ali, the newly appointed mayor, called for co-operation from residents of the capital city.
    "I want to announce that Mogadishu today has entered a new phase and I expect Mogadishu people to give us a helping hand." said Adde Hassan Ali.
    In a nearby hospital doctors struggled to cope with the flow of new casualties fromt the upsurge in fighting.
    A doctor at Madina hospital, who declined to be named, said eight people were wounded while a Somali government source said the 30-minute battle killed three Somali troops.
    It was not clear who carried out the attack in a city where much of the population has guns, although suspicion will fall on Islamist remnants who have vowed guerrilla war.
    Ethiopia wants to withdraw its soldiers in the coming weeks but diplomats fear that would leave the government vulnerable to Islamists who have threatened a guerrilla war, warlords seeking to re-create fiefdoms and competing clans.
    Somalia's government wants African peacekeepers to be deployed as soon as possible and African Union officials were in Somalia this weekend to finalise plans for the force.
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