Somalia
Somali president ‘to resign’
Somalia’s newly appointed prime minister resigned earlier in the day to avoid a political standoff [AFP]
Abdullahi Yusuf, the Somali president, is expected to resign in the coming days, Al Jazeera has learnt.
Hussein Mohamed Mohamud, a spokesman for the president, said on Wednesday: “The president has already written his resignation letter and he is expected to announce it on the coming Saturday.”
Somalia: A symbol of the decaying world order
For nearly two decades, world media has described Somalia using a litany of adjectives. Some have been accurate, others have been politically expedient and nearly all have been uniformly negative.
This nation of 10 million has been called “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.” A “war-torn nation” that is the “poster child of failed states.” It has been dismissed as “a basket case,” accused of being “a haven for terrorists” and attacked as “the third front in the War on Terror.” More recently, it has come to be known as the piracy capital of the world.
It came as no surprise, then, when the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted resolution 1846 on December 16th, 2008, authorizing any nation the use of “all necessary means” to combat piracy in Somalia.
Somali fighters warn Western powers
An armed group battling Ethiopian forces in Somalia has told Al Jazeera it will take its fight beyond the country once it defeats its rivals.
“We are fighting to lift the burden of oppression and colonialism from our country … We are defending ourselves against enemies who attacked us,” Abu Mansoor, the leader of al-Shabab, said. “Once we are successful with that we will fight on and finish oppression elsewhere on earth,” he said.
Al-Shabab, meaning youth, split last year from the Islamic Courts Union which controlled much of Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu, until it was pushed out by government and Ethiopian troops in 2006.