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Somalia: Premier Appoints New Cabinet, President Flies to Addis Ababa
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Garowe Online (Garowe)
4 January 2008
Posted to the web 5 January 2008
Somalia's interim Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein named 15 members of his 18-member Cabinet on Friday as President Abdullahi Yusuf flew to the Ethiopian capital.
Prime Minister Nur Adde's slimmer Cabinet includes many new faces, while renowned former government ministers were missing from the list.
Mohamed "Gamodheere" Mohamud, the former interior minister, was not included in the new Cabinet announced today in Baidoa, the government's temporary seat.
Another figure, former Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jeele, was also absent from Prime Minister Nur Adde's new Cabinet, according to a list released to the press.
Notable new faces include Ahmed Abdisalan Adan, one of the founders of the Mogadishu-based HornAfrik media organization.
The remaining three Cabinet posts will be appointed soon, according to the Somali premier.
The appointed 15 ministers include six officials appointed from outside the parliament and one female Cabinet minister.
Meanwhile, President Yusuf flew to Addis Ababa on a special jet today.
Conflicting reports have emerged from Yusuf's sudden trip to Ethiopia.
Some reports said the Somali leader went to Addis Ababa for medical treatment.
Prime Minister Nur Adde dismissed circulating reports that Yusuf flew to Ethiopia for serious medical treatment, arguing instead that the president had minor health complications.
But President Yusuf's spokesman, Hussein Mohamed "Hubsired," told the Voice of America's Somali Service program today that the president went to Ethiopia for "work-related purposes," and not for his health.
Independent sources in Addis Ababa told Garowe Online that the Somali leader is expected to participate at an upcoming event celebrating the founding of Dire Dawa, a town in eastern Ethiopia.
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President Yusuf flew to Addis Ababa ahead of the event to check up on his health, the sources added.
Somalia's interim government is struggling to control a country wracked by a violent insurgency and struggling to cope with a humanitarian emergency.
The government is expected to restore central rule in the country after 17 years of civil war, but Islamist-led insurgents have vowed to continue their insurgency until Ethiopian troops withdraw from Somalia.
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