|
|
Somalia: Ethiopia Unsatisfied With Country's New Cabinet
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Garowe Online (Garowe)
5 December 2007
Posted to the web 6 December 2007
Garowe
The federal government of Ethiopia is "not satisfied" with the makeup of Somalia's new Cabinet, appointed last week by interim Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein.
Inside sources in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa tell Garowe Online that senior Ethiopian government officials have expressed deep concern regarding Premier Nur Adde's new Cabinet.
The appointment of Mohamed Ali Hamud to the post of foreign affairs minister has troubled Addis Ababa among other factors.
Ethiopian officials are concerned about Mr. Hamud because of his close ties to Arab governments, the sources said.
Insiders believe that Ismail Buubaa, who was formerly foreign minister under the government of former Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, lost his post after Ethiopian officials pressured Gedi to demote him.
Mr. Buubaa speaks Arabic fluently and is closely associated with Arab rulers.
He spent recent months as Gedi's education minister and was reappointed to the same post by current Premier Nur Adde.
Ethiopia is one of the key stakeholders in the Somali conflict, following its decision in 2006 to deploy troops to Somalia and dismount Islamist rulers from the capital Mogadishu.
Meanwhile, Somalia's largest donor organization has expressed its concern about the new government of Prime Minister Nur Adde.
Sources in the Kenyan capital Nairobi tell Garowe Online that the European Union is disappointed with Nur Adde's Cabinet.
Somali lawmakers recently made a constitutional amendment allowing individuals outside of parliament to hold governments posts, including the prime minister himself.
That amendment, supported by the EU, was agreed upon at the clan-based National Reconciliation Conference, held in Mogadishu in July and August. EU officials were aslo disappointed with the sheer size of the Cabinet.
Nur Adde's new Cabinet, which consists of 31 ministers, has only two ministers from outside the parliament.
Four Cabinet ministers, all from the clan, resigned yesterday in protest. A deputy minister resigned the same day he was appointed to the post.
|
Legislators in the transitional government have bickered about approving the new Cabinet. A parliament session was postponed abruptly on Tuesday due to strong internal dissent.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2007 Garowe Online. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
