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Somali lawmakers delay presidential vote
Somali lawmakers on Tuesday extended by five days the time period needed to elect a new president.
abdullahi-yusuf-ahmed
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Somali prime minister stands firm after sacking
Somalia’s president announced Sunday he was sacking the Cabinet but the premier challenged the move, in a fresh clash between the two rivals.
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Mugabe looms over EU-Africa summit
The leaders of Africa and the Europe Union (EU) gathered in Lisbon on Friday for a summit designed to forge a new era in ties, but which is in danger of being overshadowed by the presence of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. The two-day summit in the Portuguese capital is set to be dominated by issues such as trade, immigration, the environment and human rights.
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US pledges to bolster DRC against rebels
The United States and Africa’s Great Lakes states agreed on Wednesday to rapidly strengthen Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) security forces in their drive against rebel and foreign forces. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave no details when she announced the agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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UN: Somalia freezes aid operations in south-east
The Somali government has frozen aid activities in a south-eastern region most affected by the country’s growing humanitarian crisis, a United Nations spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday. The new restrictions ban all humanitarian flights to the Lower Shabelle region’s airports, World Food Programme spokesperson Peter Smerdon said.
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Ethiopia: World is forgetting Somalia
Ethiopia has warned that the world’s disinterest in sending peacekeepers to Somalia was dampening hopes of achieving peace in the shattered African nation. Of the 8 000 peacekeepers the African Union pledged to send to bolster President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed’s weak government, only 1 500 Ugandan troops are actually on the ground.
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Mortar barrage triggers Mogadishu clashes
Insurgents fired a barrage of mortars into an Ethiopian army camp in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Friday, triggering heavy fighting, residents said. The clashes shattered a fortnight lull in the city after weeks of heavy fighting that had claimed dozens of lives, mainly of civilians, and displaced at least 200 000 people.
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Call for protection of press freedom in Somalia
A Somali media panel on Friday asked the country’s new Prime Minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, to protect press freedom that has been under siege as the government battles insurgents. The National Union of Somali Journalists appeal came a day after President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed appointed Hussein, a veteran law-enforcement official.
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Thousands flee fighting in Somali capital
The toll from some of the worst fighting in Somalia’s war-wracked capital climbed to 59 on Saturday, as thousands fled the city fearing more clashes between Ethiopian forces and rebels, witnesses said. Residents recovered bullet-riven bodies, ripped limbs and shattered skulls on the blood-streaked streets.
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Somali president in crisis talks to find new PM
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed called crisis talks on Tuesday to find a new prime minister as the country’s shaky government faced a mounting challenge from Islamist rebels.
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New UN envoy to Somalia holds first talks
The United Nations’s new envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, held his first talks in Mogadishu on Saturday with the embattled transitional government’s top leaders, the UN said. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s special representative discussed the results of a recent national reconciliation congress.
