Sharif Returns to Power in Somalia as Militants Advance
Sharif Returns to Power in
Somalia as
Militants Advance
Excerpt: A rare sense of optimism rose in Mogadishu in the early hours of Jan. 31 as people learnt that the leader of a moderate faction of the
Union of
Islamic Courts, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, had been elected as head the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
Sharif defeated Prime Minister Nur Hassan
Hussein, who was strongly backed by the international
community, and
General Maslah Mohamed Siad, son of Somalia's last
prewar president Gen. Siad Barre.
"The only period of
peace in Mogadishu's 18 years of
civil war was in the second half of 2006 when Sheikh Sharif's Islamic courts were in power,"
Mohammed Ali Siad of the Banadir Business Association told IPS over the phone from Mogadishu. "Now, two years later, no one seems better placed to reach out to Islamic insurgent groups and handle the
crisis than him."
WAR INFO: Sharif Returns to Power in Somalia as Militants Advance