Somali veteran politician and soldier Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was sworn in as the new president of his Horn of Africa country on Thursday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Yusuf, who was elected on Sunday by members of his country’s transitional Parliament, which sits in Nairobi, took the oath of office before several African presidents, including the African Union chairperson, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
If Yusuf manages to install a government recognised in most parts of the country, it will be first since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, plunging the Horn of Africa state into a lawless battleground for competing warlords.
After reading out his oath in the Somali language, cheers and ululations rang out inside the sports stadium where the ceremony took place.
Among heads of state and government present were Kenya’s Mwai Kibaki, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Yemen’s Ali Abdallah Saleh, Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Guelleh and Tanzanian Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye.
Yusuf was sworn into office by Somali Parliament speaker Shariff Hassan Sheikh Aden, and his oath was followed by a 21-gun salute.
Kenya has hosted talks aimed at restoring a functional government in chaotic Somalia. The Somali transitional Parliament sits in Nairobi because of fears over security in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. — Sapa-AFP