Abdi Sheikh Ahmed has been appointed as the prime minister of the western-backed federal government in Somalia. The country is occupied by over 20,000 U.S.-EU backed troops., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Stewart Bell | 12/12/13 1:14 PM ET
Somali-Canadian economist was named prime minister of Somalia on Thursday, a key position in a government under pressure to rebuild, curb corruption and subdue armed Islamists.
Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, 54, studied economics at the University of Ottawa and worked at the Bank of Canada but left a decade ago and has been at the Islamic Development Bank in Saudi Arabia since 2010.
Although he has no political experience, Mr. Ahmed was chosen for the position by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. He must still be confirmed by a parliament plagued by infighting.
“I hope that I will fulfill the duties I am entrusted with, and if parliament approves my nomination, I will swiftly name a high calibre cabinet,” Mr. Ahmed said, according to the AFP wire service.
“I hope that I will fulfill the duties I am entrusted with Mr. Ahmed is not the country’s first Somali-Canadian prime minister. Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, a Carleton University graduate, held the post from 2009 to 2010, when he resigned. The notoriously fractious country has had six prime ministers in six years.
The current, internationally backed government that was formed in August, 2012, faces some major challenges, notably the need for order and economic development in a nation that has been lawless and isolated for two decades.
In addition to confronting Al-Shabab, an armed Islamist group aligned with al-Qaeda that wants to impose its authoritarian version of Islamic law on Somalis, the government has a significant corruption problem.
“I’m hoping that the naming of a new prime minister will herald the beginning of real work by this government,” said Toronto lawyer Ahmed Hussen, who heads the Canadian Somali Congress.
He said corruption and impunity had to end and human rights abuses needed to be addressed, particularly the country’s rape epidemic. The arrest of women who complain of rape also continued, he said.
“So those are the issues that we hope this new prime minister will deal with but I am skeptical. I don’t have a lot of faith in this administration,” he said. “I don’t think a new prime minister will really do much.”
According to a resumé posted on the Somali news website mareeg.com, Mr. Ahmed served as director-general of the livestock marketing and health agencies in Somalia before the previous regime collapsed in 1991.
He arrived in Canada in 1998 and earned a Master’s degree in economics from the U of O, as well as a computer programming diploma from Algonquin College. He worked as an international trade and development analyst before leaving in 2003 to work for the African Union in Nairobi.
Canada is home to the world’s largest ethnic Somali diaspora. Encouraged by a new sense of security in the capital Mogadishu, many have returned to start businesses, work for humanitarian agencies or serve in government.
But while African Union forces have beaten back Al-Shabab, some believe the government has backed off in recent months, allowing the Islamists to regroup.
The resurgence has been underscored by several bombings, including one on Nov. 8 that injured a Somali-Canadian member of the Somali parliament, Sooyaan Abdi Warsame. Four gunmen stormed the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi on Sept. 21 and massacred 67 people. A Canada Border Services Agency officer posted in Kenya was among the dead.
“We feel a little bit now that we are more secure than before,” Abdurahman Adan Ibrahim, a Somali MP and former Deputy Prime Minister, told the National Post in a recent interview. “In a sense, yes, they have been defeated but at the same time it looks like they are coming back .… Once and for all this has to be eradicated.”
A New York Police Department report on the Westgate attack said Al-Shabab had recruited “radicalized” members of the Somali diaspora from the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia and Sweden. “The fear is that these trained individuals could also be used to conduct attacks on U.S. soil or against U.S. interests overseas,” it said.
National Post
• Email: sbell@nationalpost.com |
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