Somali President Resigns After Failing to Bring Peace
December 29, 2008

Somalia’s President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the former warlord appointed four years ago to bring peace to the Horn of Africa nation, resigned after failing to end the country’s 17-year conflict.

Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nor Madobe, the speaker of parliament, will assume the presidency under Somalia’s transitional federal charter, Yusuf told lawmakers today in Baidoa, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the capital, Mogadishu. The address was broadcast on Capital Voice, a closely held broadcaster.

“I have handed over my resignation letter to the speaker of parliament,” Yusuf said. “I urge all of you to unite.”

Yusuf, 74, was appointed head of a United Nations-backed transitional federal government, or TFG, on Oct. 14, 2004, with the aim of forming the country’s first national administration since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. Last year, U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops helped Yusuf to remove an Islamist coalition that briefly took control of Mogadishu.

Since then, a widening insurgency by Islamists has impeded Yusuf’s efforts to extend the government’s control beyond the capital. The ensuing conflict has displaced 1 million people and left 3.2 million in need of food aid, according to the UN. The seas off Somalia have become the world’s most dangerous for piracy and at least 500 refugees have died or gone missing this year attempting to flee across the Gulf of Aden.

‘Excellent News’

Yusuf’s resignation is “excellent news,” said Ioan Lewis, a retired professor from the London School of Economics who is also a Somalia historian. “He’s done nothing positive at all for his country.”

Yusuf’s departure follows a dispute with Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, a moderate who had sought peace with Somalia’s Islamic opposition. Yusuf opposed Hussein’s peace overtures and tried to oust him earlier this month. He was thwarted when Somalia’s parliament backed the prime minister.

“He had no concept of building up an integrated government,” Lewis said. “He had no idea of how to negotiate with people and make concessions with others. He was an out-and- out guerrilla leader of a very ruthless kind, but he had no other qualifications of any merit.”

Yusuf’s mandate as president was due to expire in March. His continuation in that role was seen by Ethiopia, his former principal backer, and other east African governments as an obstacle to talks between the government and moderate Islamists from the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia.

Djibouti Process

The so-called Djibouti process, begun in June, was restarted by an Oct. 27 pact between the TFG and Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia that called for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops who invaded in December 2006, the establishment of a 10,000-man joint police force and a unity government to be established in January that would choose a new president. Ethiopia has announced plans to withdraw from Somalia by Jan. 1.

“Once the Ethiopians made up their mind they didn’t want Yusuf, Yusuf had no option,” said Rashid Abdi, Somalia analyst with the International Crisis Group. “I think his support has been diminishing even in his native Puntland. His support was near zero in Somalia.”

A member of the Darod clan from north-central Somalia, Yusuf had trouble garnering support from the clans that dominate southern Somalia, including Mogadishu. He was previously the president of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

‘Obstacle to Peace’

Yusuf’s circle had become “the single greatest obstacle to efforts to broker a broad-based peace agreement, particularly one incorporating southern and central clans suspicious of Puntland elite interests,” Control Risks, a London-based security consultancy, said on its Web site.

Somalia’s government was also plagued by corruption and mismanagement and currently controls only parts of Mogadishu and the southern town of Baidoa. A printing press for producing Somali shillings was kept inside the compound of Yusuf’s presidential palace in Mogadishu, according to a report released by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia this month.

The report cited a senior official from Somalia’s central bank saying the bank had no control over the printing press, and noted that the central bank and Finance Ministry “appear to exist in name only.”

The same report found that a $32 million donation from Saudi Arabia for a 2007 peace conference in Somalia had been misappropriated by Yusuf’s office.

To contact the reporters on this story: Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net; Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.


Source: The Associated Press