MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia’s new leader was inaugurated Wednesday while promising to restore dignity to the troubled Horn of Africa nation but warning it will take another two decades to “fix” the country.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed was elected earlier this month in a step toward Somalia’s first fully functioning central government in a quarter-century.
“Multiple challenges are ahead of our government. Therefore, I am telling people that because of the limited resources we have, our achievements will be limited,” said Mohamed, also known as Farmajo. “For the past 26 years, there have conflicts and droughts, so it will take other 20 years to fix this country.”
He said Somalia’s main obstacles are insecurity and humanitarian crises, including a drought that the U.N. has said affects millions of people.
“I want to tell people that our government will focus on reconciliation, justice and law and the restoration of the confidence of people in the government,” Mohamed told an audience that included several regional heads of state.
He also promised payments, equipment and training for the military, which over the next few years will take on more of the responsibility of countering homegrown extremist group al-Shabab as an African Union peacekeeping mission of more than 20,000 plans to withdraw by the end of 2020.
Somalia’s new leader, who also holds U.S. citizenship, has already vowed to make security a priority in a country where al-Shabab still carries out deadly attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and elsewhere. On Sunday, a car bomb in the capital killed at least 34.
The Islamic extremist group earlier this week denounced Mohamed’s election and vowed to keep fighting.
The new leader also has promised to tackle graft in a country recently ranked by Transparency International as the most corrupt in the world.
Source: AP
