Mohamed Abdullahi appointed Somali PM

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has nominated Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed to fill the vacant premiership post in the Horn of Africa country.

“Today, I have appointed Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed as the new Prime Minister for the country. I expect him to immediately form a new government that will strive to solve the crisis the country is currently facing,” a Press TV correspondent quoted President Ahmed as saying at his office in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday.

Abdullahi, for his part, promised to form a ‘competent’ government very soon, designate security as a top priority and fulfil his duties for the Somali people.

“We have to deal with the insurgents who are behind the meaningless bloodshed in Somalia, either by fighting them or by reconciling with them, if they are ready for that,” he said.

Abdullahi will replace Omar Abdirashid Sharmake, who resigned last month due to the government’s failure to beat back al-Shabab fighters and his profound disagreements with the president.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Over the past two decades, up to one million people have lost their lives in fighting between rival factions and due to famine and disease.

There are more than 1.4 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Somalia; more than 300,000 of the IDPs are sheltered in Mogadishu.

Most of the displaced live in poor and degrading conditions on makeshift sites in southern and central Somalia, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.