Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi reshuffled his Cabinet on Wednesday, sacking three ministers as the government seeks to reassert its authority in the chaotic nation after a war ousted rival Islamists.
A government statement said Health Minister Abdiaziz Sheikh Yusuf and Higher Education and Culture Minister Hussein Mohamud Sheikh Hussein had been sacked after ”they had failed to carry out their duties and were involved in misappropriating funds”.
Mineral and Water Resources Minister Mohamud Salad Nuur was relieved for failing to be sworn in after he was appointed to the portfolio.
”After weighing the hard times the country is facing and seeing the need to reshuffle some of the ministries, I’ve decided to sack others, and nominate new Cabinet ministers,” Gedi said in a statement.
There were 10 changes made in total in the reshuffle, including moving Interior Minister Hussein Mohamed Farah Aideed, who now takes on the public works portfolio.
Gedi’s sackings are a contrast to last year when he narrowly escaped a no-confidence vote and struggled to keep his Cabinet intact amid a flurry of resignations by ministers and their assistants, who accused him of blocking reconciliation efforts with the Islamists.
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf was forced to dissolve the 42-member Cabinet in August, which was crippled by infighting, and Gedi later named a slimmer 31-member Cabinet in an effort to rejuvenate his fragile government.
Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies ousted the Islamists from southern strongholds in a two-week offensive that began in late December. They have been pursing the Islamists in remote parts of south Somalia since. — Reuters