Africa
Parliament endorses new Somalia PM
Somali women hold up pictures of their new President and leader of the opposition Alliance for Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) Sheikh Sharif Ahmed upon his arrival in the capital Mogadishu. PHOTO/ REUTERS
Posted Saturday, February 14 2009 at 17:39
His new prime minister is the son of Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, an elected president shot dead in 1969 before the military coup that brought Barre into power.
Though his family base is in Virginia in the United States, he has both Canadian and Somali citizenship, his aides said.
The president of semi-autonomous Puntland province, where Sharmarke is from, was happy with the appointment.
"We are welcoming the new government of Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid and we will work with it. We hope that he will bring to an end the protracted violence in Somalia," Abdirahman Farole told reporters.
"His family has a good history in Somalia, his father was a good president and we hope that he will be similar to his late father."
In next-door Ethiopia, which has just pulled its military out of Somalia after a two-year intervention, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his troops would cross the border again if necessary, to counter Islamist militants, but was not considering another major incursion.
"We reserve our right of hot pursuit but have no intention of going back to Somalia and trying to restabilise the country," he said late on Friday.
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