Somali PM appoints a 66 man cabinet
This is the third attempt by Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ai Sharmake to form a government. On Thursday night He appointed a sixty six-man council of ministers.
Prime Minister Sharmake is now faced with a major task of convincing the federal parliament that his cabinet appointees will deliver on their expectation.
Members of parliament have remained divided ever since the ouster of Sharmake’s predecessor Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed in December 2014.
On Thursday, the UN Security Council urged Somali political leaders to work together, and establish inclusive and a representative government.
The council also expressed concerns that the ongoing political crisis is impacting peace and security in the long troubled East African nation.
It is unclear whether the federal parliament will approve Prime Minister’s Sharmake’s government list. The appointment comes at time when the international community has expressed both excitement and worry on whether Somalia will become a unified, peaceful and federal state by 2016.
The recent political crisis in the country has also stalled the ongoing offensive to dislodge Al-Shabaab fighters from a string of towns and villages mainly in southern Somalia.
But as a part of political inclusivity, authorities in Mogadishu have invited presidents of Somali regional states namely Puntland, Jubbaland and South West State to the country’s capital Mogadishu to discuss the country’s political future.
