04/08/08 (B459) Press TV / Des milliers de Somaliens manifestent pour réclamer la démission du Président du GNT Abdillahi Yussuf. / Somalis demand president step down (En Anglais – Info lecteur)

Thousands of protestors have rallied against Somali president demanding he step down, while showing support for the country’s premier.

« We ask the international community to issue arrest warrants for President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and the mayor of Mogadishu, Mohammed Dheere, who are responsible for the massacre of more than half a million of our people, » demonstrators rallying in north Mogadishu said in a statement on Monday.

« These merciless warlords must be tried for the daily agonies they have imposed on our men, women and children, by inviting Ethiopian soldiers to our country, » the statement read, adding that « we support Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein (Nur Adde) and his newly-appointed ministers in these trying times. »

The protest was triggered by a dispute between the president and the prime minister, over the dismissal of Mogadishu mayor — a close ally of President Abdullah Yusuf — last Tuesday on the grounds of embezzlement, incompetence, insubordination and abuse of power.

The dispute led to the resignation of 10 cabinet ministers, many of them allied to the president.

However, ignoring calls on him to step down, Nur Adde on Sunday named six new ministers to fill in the vacated posts, adding he would name the remaining ministers « after consultations with the people as to the best person to fill in those positions ».