African Union Commission chief Jean Ping said on Monday Somalia’s transitional government had failed to deliver, but urged more support for the administration whose mandate expires in August.
Addressing a special meeting on Somalia at the AU summit, Ping explained that apart from signing a cooperation deal with a moderate Islamist group, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) had achieved little else.
“The TFG has also been unable to establish national authority. It has not been able to effectively deliver on its governmental obligations, especially the provision of stability and delivery of social services to its constituency,” said Ping.
The Somali government, currently headed by President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, was formed in neighbouring Kenya in 2004 and was to have adopted a new constitution and organised elections during the transitional period.
Sharif’s administration’s remit stretches to only a few streets of the capital Mogadishu, boxed in by a fierce Islamist insurgency and only survives because of the protection of AU forces there. — AFP