Tuesday January 13, 2015
Somalia’s Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke has unveiled his 26-member cabinet nearly a month after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud appointed him to the top job.During a ceremony at Villa Somalia presidential compound in Mogadishu on Monday, Sharmarke announced that Defense Minister Mohamed Sheikh Hassan Hamud, Finance Minister Hussein Abdi Halane and Foreign Minister Abdirahman Duale Beyle have been reinstated. The three men are close to the president.Abdikarim Hussein Gulled was appointed minister of interior, while Farah Sheikh Abdulkadir was chosen to take up the job as justice minister. They are both allies of the president.
Former intelligence chief, Mohamed Abdullahi Sanbalooshe, also a presidential aide, was given the prominent portfolio of national security.
Two women, Khadijo Mohamed Diriye and Nadifo Mohamed Osman, retained their posts at the ministries of women's and human rights, and public works respectively.
Political analysts say a cabinet aligned with the policies of President Mohamud is less likely to get involved in political wrangling.
Sharmarke faces an uphill battle to rein in corruption, defeat al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab militants and rebuild war-ravaged Somalia.
Somalia has been the scene of deadly clashes between government forces and al-Shabab militants since 2006.
The militants have been pushed out of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and other major cities in the country by government troops and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). AMISOM is largely made up of troops from Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Sierra Leone, and Kenya.
United Nations Special Representative for Somalia Nicholas Kay has said that Somalia has "a mighty hill to climb" to review the constitution and then hold a referendum and elections by 2016.