Garowe Online (Garowe)
8 February 2008
A member of parliament from Somalia's southern regions announced his resignation during a Friday radio interview, after accusing the country's leaders of "taking orders" from Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
MP Abdulaziz Ibrahim Osman spoke to Mogadishu-based HornAfrik Radio from his residence in London, United Kingdom.
"I will not become a member of those who allow the massacre of Somali civilians and I declare that there is no Somali government," Osman said, adding: "I have resigned from the parliament."
He accused fellow lawmakers, based in the inland town of Baidoa, of "chewing khat in a prison" and dismissed President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein as "puppets" for the Ethiopian government of Prime Minister Zenawi.
Osman has become the first Somali lawmaker to resign from parliament since it was formed in 2004.
A group of more than 20 MPs were expelled from parliament in 2007 after they refused to set foot in Somalia until Ethiopian troops withdraw from the country.
That group of parliamentarians, who renamed themselves as the 'Free Parliament', joined forces with the ousted Islamic Courts leaders and are now based in Asmara, Eritrea.
Osman said he would join the Eritrea-based opposition alliance to push for the removal of Ethiopian forces from Somali soil.
Ethiopian troops deployed in Somalia in late 2006 to dislodge Islamist rulers from Mogadishu.
But more than a year after their arrival, the Ethiopian army and its Somali government partners have remained unable to control the volatile situation in the capital, where shootouts, roadside bombings and assassinations have become a daily part of life.
Eritrea, Ethiopia's arch-enemy in the Horn of Africa region, is accused of backing Islamist rebels waging war on the Somali government and its Ethiopian backers.
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Now many Somalia Intellectuals is realise that the priority solution for the security, stabile country and stagnant moving country is getting read of gangster warlords once for all in any means necessary. this resign minster is one of those opportunists, sense that this transitional government, more than any other, poses the biggest threat yet to the gravy days of anarchy. I Believe, islamist gangster clan warlord with religious jacket will never go along with any program. The only way to tame these savages is by brute force.
Maxamood gawsbaraako
ETHIOPIA: "Eight million need assistance, 07 Feb 2008 12:09:50 GMT Source: IRIN
NAIROBI, 7 February 2008 (IRIN) - Ethiopia experienced a record harvest during the meher season that runs from June and October but pockets of poor food production across the country have still left millions of people needing food assistance, according to a food security update.
Citing the Somali region in particular, the update issued by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) on 6 February stated that poor rains during the deyr season, from October to November, exacerbated extreme food insecurity in parts of the… [Read Full Text]