Somali parliament swears in new premier - AFP

MOGADISHU (AFP) — The Somali parliament on Saturday swore in a new prime minister, hoping to bolster the feeble government faced with a deadly insurgency in the capital and to restore stability across the shattered nation.

Nur Hassan Hussein, 69, took the oath of office after 211 of the present 212 lawmakers endorsed him in the provincial town of Baidoa where the parliament is based, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of Mogadishu.

"I promise that I will lead the country honestly and I will do everything that I can to stabilise Somalia," Hussein told lawmakers.

"I ask the parliament to support me and correct me if I go wrong," he vowed before the 275-member clan-based assembly.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon hailed as "an important step" the appointment of Hussein, who headed the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS) since 1991. He has also served as a top Somali police official and attorney general.

"The secretary general expresses the hope that the appointment of the new prime minister will increase the momentum among Somalis to unite their efforts and complete the implementation of the key tasks of the transitional federal charter," Ban's press office said in a statement.

"This will be an important step toward making reconciliation and reconstruction a reality."
But rebels based in the Eritrean capital have refused to recognise the new prime minister and vowed to continue their insurgency.

Hussein's appointment follows the naming Thursday of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as the veteran law enforcement and aid official to replace Ali Mohamed Gedi, forced to resign last month after a long-running power struggle with the president.

Hussein becomes the second premier in Yusuf's three-year-old transitional government that is struggling to end years of violence and an Islamist-led insurgency ravaging the capital.
The Somali violence has resulted in a growing humanitarian crisis, with around one million people displaced in the country, of which 600,000 have been uprooted from Mogadishu since February.

Bloody clan conflict and power struggles that erupted after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre have scuppered numerous initiatives to restore national stability.

Source: AFP