The United Nations on Monday urged Somalia’s leaders to make good on their agreement for a new election timetable after repeated delays sparked a perilous political crisis.
Under a deal announced late Sunday after talks between Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble and state leaders, parliamentary polls that should have wrapped up in 2021 are now due to be concluded by February 25.
The election impasse set off a bitter power struggle between Roble and President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as Farmajo, that threatened the stability of the fragile Horn of Africa nation.
“I want to applaud the national consultative forum meeting in Mogadishu which yielded a positive result that ensures the completion of the election,” the president said on national TV.
The UN mission in Somalia said on Twitter it was “pleased” at the consensus reached during the meetings of the National Consultative Council. But it added: “The priority now is to implement these decisions to achieve a credible and widely-accepted result by the new deadline. The UN encourages Somali’s political leaders to continue in a spirit of cooperation, avoid provocations that risk new tensions or conflict and stay focused on delivering a credible electoral process quickly for the benefit of all Somalis.”
The international community had voiced fears that the election delays and the Roble-Farmajo feud could tip the country deeper into crisis as it continues to battle a deadly insurgency by Al-Shabaab jihadists.
Police officers and people stand at the bomb explosion site in Mogadishu, Somalia on November 25, 2021. Five people were killed and over a dozen injured in a car bombing near a school in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on November 25, 2021, a security official said, in the latest attack to hit the troubled country. Photo: AFP
