Region | Somalia
Somali transition president to resign
The president of Somalia's beleaguered transition government, a former warlord who has been steadily marginalised over the past few months and widely blamed for his country's deepening crisis, is expected to resign over the weekend, several Somali officials said on Wednesday.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:36 December 25, 2008
Nairobi/Mogadishu: The president of Somalia's beleaguered transition government, a former warlord who has been steadily marginalised over the past few months and widely blamed for his country's deepening crisis, is expected to resign over the weekend, several Somali officials said on Wednesday.
President Abdullahi Yousuf Ahmad faces a litany of challenges: a powerful insurgency; a rancorous parliament that is threatening to impeach him; a united front of Western diplomats who say he has gone from being the solution for Somalia to being the problem; and neighbouring countries, like Kenya, that have gotten so fed up with him that they are preparing sanctions against him and his family.
Years of anarchy
"Yousuf was an obstacle to peace," said Ebrahim Isaaq Yarow, the transitional government's Deputy Information Minister. "The parliamentarians were congratulating one another when they heard the news that the president was resigning."
The question is, will his resignation - if it indeed takes place - make a difference? Somalia's government controls no more than a few city blocks in a country nearly the size of Texas.
Insurgents with varying agendas control much of the rest.
Famine is steadily creeping toward millions of people, the victims of drought, displacement and nearly 18 years of anarchy.
Since 1991, Somalia has not had a functioning central government. The 13 previous attempts at forming one all failed, disappearing down a vortex of clan-driven violence and suspicion.
A further problem is Somalia's deeply entrenched war profiteers - the gun runners, the importers of expired baby formula, the squatter landlords - who will probably resist any government because they do not want to pay taxes or deal with regulations. Yousuf has struggled with all this. He has often favoured military might versus negotiations, which increasingly seemed out of sync with what many analysts have said Somalia needs.
Troop withdrawal
While many other Somali leaders recently agreed to share power with moderate insurgents, Yousuf refused, calling the insurgents terrorists.
He tried to block a measure that would bring moderate Islamists into the government and double the size of parliament, to 550 seats. Ethiopia, which has several thousand troops in Somalia, had recently fallen out with Yousuf, and the Ethiopians have said they will withdraw all their firepower in the next few weeks.
One of the president's aides said the leader "had had enough."
"He has been thinking of resigning for some time but decided that now is the opportune moment," said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Everyone is talking about peace. Maybe this will help."
Delicate health
Yousuf, who is in his late 70s and in delicate health, was selected as president in 2004 by his colleagues in the government.
His expected exit now kicks off what is sure to be a clan-based succession battle.
Under the transitional government's charter, the speaker of parliament assumes the presidency for a maximum of 30 days until the House selects a new leader.
Many Western diplomats have said that this could be a golden opportunity to give the Islamists and other opposition groups a new role and, possibly, decrease the ceaseless violence.
Timeline: Troubled peace
Somali President Abdullahi Yousuf has decided to resign, his spokesman said. The announcement followed the resignation of a politician, Yousuf, named prime minister last week. Here is a timeline of events since Islamists first seized the capital, Mogadishu:
- June 2006 The Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) seizes Mogadishu from US-backed warlords and takes control of parts of southern Somalia.
- December 28 Islamists flee Mogadishu ahead of a joint Ethiopian and Somali government force which captures the city.
- January 8, 2007 Abdullahi Yousuf arrives in Mogadishu for the first time since he became president in 2004.
- August 30 Yousuf winds up a six-week-long peace conference, which has no visible impact on growing insurgency. Islamists and some other opposition figures boycott the talks.
- March 26, 2008 Islamist fighters seize Jowhar, the most significant of several towns recently captured.
- May 1 US air strike kills Al Shabaab leader Aden Hashi Ayro.
- August 18 Somalia formally signs a peace deal with some opposition figures, but the pact is rejected by hardliners.
- August 22 Al Shabaab insurgents seize Kismayu, a strategic southern port, after fighting that killed 70 people.
- August 25 UN's Food Security Analysis Unit says more than 3.2 million people need humanitarian aid.
- October 3 Islamists, now controlling swathes of southern Somalia, warn Western charities working there not to meddle in their affairs.
- November 14 Al Shabaab fighters move into Elasha town near Sinkadheer, where Ethiopian troops are based. Sinkadheer is 15 km (9 miles) south-west of Mogadishu.
- November 15 The Sirius Star, a Saudi supertanker, is hijacked by pirates 450 miles southeast of Mombasa.
- November 28 Ethiopia says it will withdraw its troops from Somalia by the end of this year, piling pressure on Somalia's feuding government.
- December 24 Yousuf announces he will resign tomorrow, hours after newly appointed Guled quits.
- Reuters
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