BBC NEWS

The prime minister of Somalia’s transitional government, Ali Mohamed Ghedi, has resigned. Mr Ghedi told MPs of his decision after handing in his resignation to President Abdullahi Ahmed Yusuf.

Mr Ghedi has been blamed for failing to quell the Islamist insurgency in Somalia and for bringing Ethiopian Woyanne troops onto Somali soil.

On Sunday, thousands fled the capital, Mogadishu, after Ethiopian Woyanne troops opened fire on protestors.

The BBC’s East Africa correspondent Karen Allen says that the prime minister’s political future has for some time hung in the balance.

She says that despite efforts to salvage his job during talks at the weekend in Ethiopia, he has agreed to step down after pressure from within Somalia and the international community, in particular from the US.

Clan rivalries

Mr Ghedi’s resignation was swiftly accepted by President Abdullahi Yusuf.

The pair have had a fractured relationship fuelled by clan rivalries during the three years they have worked together in Somalia’s transitional government. Mr Ghedi is from the Hawiye clan, which is dominant in Mogadishu and is the largest in the country.

President Yusuf is from the breakaway northern state of Puntland and comes from the Darod clan, the country’s second largest.

Observers say the fear is that with Mr Ghedi gone, the Hawiye will now be even more united in their opposition to Mr Yusuf’s transitional government.

Aides close to the president said that the resignation was part of a deal to end what he called the political confusion in Somalia.

The Ethiopians Woyanne, seen as rivals by many Somalis, have been fighting alongside Somali troops to try and restore order to the fractured country, but many see them as inflaming tensions.

Somalia has been without an effective government since civil war began in 1991, but has seen a surge in violence since Ethiopian-backed government troops ousted Islamists last December.

The UN says some 400,000 people have fled the violence in Mogadishu in the past four months.

(AFP) Ethiopian Woyanne forces opened fire on demonstrators protesting against their presence in Mogadishu Sunday, killing three, witnesses said, as fresh violence engulfed the Somali capital.

At the same time, Somali authorities urged civilians to evacuate from southern Mogadishu, vowing to widen crackdowns to areas believed to be rebel hideouts.

A crowd of hundreds of protestors chanting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and wielding sticks had been marching in the streets of southern Mogadishu in reaction to the latest Ethiopian Woyanne crackdown on the insurgency when the deaths occurred.

“A young boy and two other civilians died when Ethiopian Woyanne forces in Suqaholaha area opened fire on us. We were demonstrating against them and they opened fire to disperse the crowd,” witness Hussein Adan Suley told AFP.

“We ran away when the Ethiopians Woyanne opened fire. I know that one child was killed,” said another protestor, Asma Wardhere.

There was no immediate confirmation of the casualty toll from medical sources following the demonstration, the first to be staged by disgruntled Mogadishu residents in several months.

But a police official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that three people had died during the demonstration, and added that two other people had been killed Sunday in separate incidents.

One man was shot dead in the volatile Bakara market area. Relatives said the motives of the killing were not known.

Police also said that one of their members was killed but declined to reveal the location and circumstances of the incident.

Demonstrators razed a police station on Sunday, the second to be burnt down in southern Mogadishu in two days, after terrified police fled, the city’s mayor Mohamed Omar Habeb told a press conference.

“They burnt down the second police station today,” he told a press conference.

“We call upon civilians in Bakara to move from that area because we will go after the insurgents in that area,” said Habeb, referring to the volatile Bakara market in southern Mogadishu.

For the second day, violence pitting joint Ethiopia Woyanne-Somali forces against Islamist insurgents rocked the city in broad daylight.

On Saturday, Ethiopian Woyanne troops fanned out into the streets following fighting near the stadium that left at least six civilians dead.

The latest clashes prompted a fresh wave of displacement, as civilians could be seen across entire neighbourhoods loading pick-up trucks and donkey carts with household items.

“No one can endure what is happening in Mogadishu, it’s non-stop violence and it’s taking hundreds of lives every week,” said southern Mogadishu resident Abdurahman Nure, speaking to AFP from the back of a Land Cruiser as he left the city with his children.

The Ethiopian Woyanne army came to the rescue of Somalia’s embattled government last year to defeat fundamentalist Islamist militia that briefly controlled large parts of the country.

Since the Islamists were ousted earlier this year, its militia and allied tribal fighters have waged a guerrilla-style war, carrying out hit-and-run attacks, mainly by night and in Mogadishu.

“The insurgents are attacking the government and Ethiopia Woyanne forces almost everyday now,” said Fartun Adan Mohamed, a single mother of three while fleeing.

“Whenever this happens, we civilians are the target for the Ethiopian Woyanne army as well as the Somali forces, so fleeing is the only option we have,” she said.

Residents said daytime clashes are making the city more dangerous than before.

Mogadishu residents have been fleeing the city in several major waves in recent months, arriving in droves in neighbouring settlements plagued by dire food shortages.

While the capital was engulfed in violence, the country’s transitional government was also on the brink of disintegration.

In Baidoa township, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) from Mogadishu, President Abdullahi Ahmed Yusuf was pushing parliament to oust Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi.

The two leaders are from the country’s two main and rival tribes and the president accuses his premier of failing to bring an end to the insurgency.

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) – Ethiopian Tamrat Ayalew was the fastest of more than 22,000 runners in today’s Marine Corps Marathon in and around the nation’s capital.

He finished the final five miles all alone to unseat 2-time defending champion Ruben Garcia with a time of 2 hours, 22 minutes and 18 seconds in the men’s race.

Rookie Kristen Henehan, a 3-time track All-American at Georgetown University, was the women’s winner.

She finished the course in 2 hours, 51 minutes, 9 seconds, edging ahead of Lisa Thomas in the final mile to win by 27 seconds.

Kinijit town hall meeting in Washington DC,
Oct. 28, 2007 [photo: Tewodros Mekebeb]

Another historical Kinijit town hall meeting was held Sunday, Oct. 28, in Washington DC as Kinijit delegates Wzt. Bertukan Mideksa, Dr Hailu Araya, Ato Gizachew Shiferraw, Ato Brook Kebede and Dr Berhanu Nega concluded their USA tour.

The Oct. 28 town hall meeting was where Ethiopians spoke loud and clear that they support leaders who stand for democracy, and respect the rule of law.

The town hall meeting was held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which was full and overfilled into the hall ways, as the photos here show. What a contrast to the Oct. 14 fiasco organized by Keysi’s (KIC) Taye Woldesemayat for Kinijit’s estranged chairman Hailu Shawel.

The host of Sunday’s town hall meeting, the Kinijit Washington DC Metro, allocated more time than usual for questions and answers, cutting down time from speeches.

The meeting was opened by Kinijit DC Metro chairman Ato Yilma Adamou, and Kinijit North America chairman Ato Aklog Lemeneh.

Ato Aklog read a resolution passed by representatives of Kinijit North America chapters who held a full day conference yesterday with the Kinijit leaders. The resolution, among other things, calls for a genuinely democratic election of Kinijit North America officials to be held next February.

Following Ato Aklog’s speech, Prof. Alemayehu Gebremariam was invited to update the audience about the progress being made with H.R. 2003. Prof. Alemayehu said a lot of grassroots work needs to be done to persuade the Senators to pass the bill without delay. He asked every one to use the Senate Advocacy Packet prepared by the Coalition for HR 2003.

Kinijit Vice President Wzt. Bertukan Mideksa took the stage next. Wzt. Bertukan, who normally speaks in a low-keyed manner, brought the house down with Churchillian-like oratory. Her speech was Churchillian because it is defiant in the face of adversity, yet full hope and promises of a better future. The main theme of her message was that the multitude of problems facing Kinijit can only be solved with the active participation of every one who wishes to see Kinijit succeed as a democratic party that strives to bring about freedom and a government by the people for the people. She said Kinijit will overcome its challenges and move forward, because that is what the people of Ethiopia want. Wzt. Bertukan proved once again that she is a shining star in Ethiopian politics.

The rest of the program was a question and answer session, which was moderated by Kinijit North America Inspector General Dr Abraham Bekele. Dr Abraham announced that there is no any kind of restriction on the kind of questions asked in the 2 minutes allotted for every one. Usually Q & A is the most interesting part of these town hall meetings during which one can get the most honest, straight forward, and unrehearsed answers from the leaders.

The questions ranged from possible war with Eritrea, the Woyanne quagmire in Somalia, the death and destruction in the Ogaden to the leadership crisis inside Kinijit.

Regarding the leadership crisis, Dr Berhanu said that the dispute is over whether Kinijit’s rules and procedures should be respected.

Dr Hailu Araya said that the only way to avoid war with Eritrea is by establishing democratic governance in the region. Dr Hailu explained that genuinely democratic countries do not go to war against each other.

This week, some of the Kinijit delegates will return to Ethiopia, while Wzt. Bertukan will join Kinijit Central Council member Ato Debebe Eshetu in Toronto to start a working visit to several cities in Canada.

Awey poletika – poem by Dr Fikre Tolossa: Click here to read