Resignation paves way for peace talks between government and Islamist groups
Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf resigned today following an internal power struggle and intense pressure from regional and Western powers who accused him of blocking peace efforts in the conflict-ravaged country.
Yusuf, 74, told parliament that a lack of international support had left him unable to establish stability and democracy, and that he was handing over power to the parliamentary speaker, Sheikh Aden Madobe.
"As I promised when you elected me on October 14, 2004, I would stand down if I failed to fulfil my duty, I have decided to return the responsibility you gave me," he said.
The transitional federal government that Yusuf, a former warlord, headed was an interim administration backed by the United Nations, and was meant to prepare the country for elections next year. Instead, it failed to establish any meaningful impact on the ground, while presiding over one of the most chaotic periods in Somalia's recent history, culminating in a bloody insurgency led by Islamist militias and occupying Ethiopian troops.
Yusuf's resignation was welcomed by diplomats, and is likely to give a boost to UN-sponsored peace negotiations between the government and opposition organisations underway in Djibouti. While his lack of concern for civilians killed in counter-insurgency operations have led some analysts and observers to describe him as a war criminal, Yusuf was also firmly opposed to talking to moderate Islamist groups, such as the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, a key party to the talks.
"Yusuf is the tough guy, the guy who knows how to fight," Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN Special Representative for Somalia, told the Guardian in a recent interview. "Nobody in government can even take a drink of water without him."
Madobe, the speaker, told reporters today that the government was now willing to have talks with any opposition group. The prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, who Yusuf tried to dismiss earlier this month, described the move as "a positive step towards democracy".
While Yusuf's decision to return to his native Puntland state in the north-east will also have been welcomed by ordinary Somalis, any sense of optimism will be tempered by the deep problems – from conflict to hunger and piracy – that face the country, which last had an effective government in 1991.
The next few months will be crucial. Ethiopia, whose disastrous invasion of Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist authority was encouraged by Yusuf, has threatened to withdraw its troops from the capital, Mogadishu, and parliamentary seat Baidoa in the coming weeks.
The vacuum could spark a violent power struggle between various Islamist groups and warlords for control of the country. Given Somalis' traditional allegiance to clan rather than religion or quickly-shifting power alliances, the outcome is impossible to predict. A few weeks ago the Shabaab, a hardline Islamist militia, seemed to be consolidating control over much of south and central Somalia. But in recent days its dominance has been challenged by a moderate Islamist group known as Ahlu Sunnah Waljamaca, which has clashed with Shabaab forces in several towns.
Xan Rice in Nairobi
guardian.co.uk
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