Somalia’s exiled president and prime minister left Kenya on Thursday on their first visits home since taking the helm of the country’s transitional government last year, officials said.
President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi left the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in separate planes en route to Jowhar, north of the country’s lawless capital of Mogadishu, they said.
Officials said Gedi and his delegation had arrived in Jowhar at about 10am local time, but residents of the town said his plane had not landed by noon.
A crowd of several thousand people, some waving the Somali flag and posters of the president and prime minister, was gathered at the town’s airfield to greet the delegation, residents said.
Once in Jowhar, officials said Gedi would prepare a reception for Yusuf who was expected to arrive later in the day.
Yusuf’s itinerary was not immediately known, but Somali officials said Gedi will be visiting at least three other towns on his five-day tour: Beletuuein, Baidoa and Galkayo.
They said Gedi will not visit Mogadishu on the current trip because of security concerns.
Gedi’s departure from Nairobi had been planned for Wednesday but was delayed for logistical reasons, and no rescheduled date for the trip was announced in advance.
His trip has been billed as a ”meet-the-people” tour to lobby support for the government ahead of its planned relocation from exile in Kenya, where it has been located for security reasons since being formed in October.
Gedi had said the relocation would begin on February 21 but although Somali officials insist the move is under way, neither the premier nor any other senior members of his government appear to have immediate plans to base themselves permanently in Somalia.
Somalia has been in chaos without any functioning central authority since the ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 turned the Horn of Africa nation into a patchwork of fiefdoms ruled by violent warlords.
To get a foothold in the capital, Gedi’s government has requested and received authorisation from the African Union for the deployment of regional peacekeepers.
But their proposed presence has drawn vehement opposition from many Somalis, particularly hard-line Islamic clerics in Mogadishu, who are opposed to the presence of any foreign troops in the country.
Just hours after Gedi announced the February 21 start date for the relocation on February 9, a BBC journalist in Mogadishu to cover the anticipated arrival of the government was shot and killed in what analysts suspect was a warning against outside intervention.
Last week, an AU delegation in Mogadishu to assess security for the peacekeepers narrowly missed being hit by a roadside bomb explosion that killed two Somalis and wounded five others.
In addition to addressing the security situation, the government has said the speed of its relocation will depend on donors covering an initial six-month budget of about $77,3-million.
Only about $8-million had been contributed by mid-February. — Sapa-AFP