News
Somalia elects new president
Abdirashid Hashi, an analyst on the Horn of Africa with the International Crisis group think-tank , described Mohamud as an outsider who nobody thought stood a chance to win.
Hashi said Mohamud’s election is a move forward but that the president will need the support of the people of Somalia to bring change to the country.
“This is a step in the right direction, but problems of Somalia are too big for a person to solve alone,” he said. They include piracy at sea, hundreds of thousands of refugees, terrorism and a lack of institutions, Hashi said.
While Somalia has had transitional administrations since 2004, it has not had a functioning central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a longtime dictator and turned on each other, plunging the impoverished nation into chaos.
The last day of the eight-year transitional government was August 20. A total of 269 lawmakers took part in Monday’s presidential vote.
Somalia has seen much progress over the last year.
Al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabab militants, who waging an insurgency against the government, were forced out of Mogadishu in August 2011 by the African Union, allowing businesses to thrive and the arts and sports to return. Al-Shabab has lost control of Mogadishu and ceded power in towns in western Somalia. The militants have largely either fled to northern Somalia and Yemen, or have retreated to Kismayo, the last major town the militants control.
Last month Somali leaders endorsed a new provisional constitution that expands rights for Somali citizens.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
