19/12/08 (B478-B) Le Président du GNT toujours sur un siège éjectable. Les vieilles casseroles qu’il trainerait derrière lui, commencent à ressortir, en particulier dans le domaine des cessions d’armement aux milices qui le soutiennent. (2 dépêches en Anglais)

_________________________ 2 – Garowe on Line (En Anglais)

L’ancien premier ministre somalien, démis par la décision du Président, mais confirmé à son poste par les parlementaires, se rend à Djibouti, pour renforcer l’accord de paix récemment signé. // Somalia: PM Nur Adde travels to Djibouti

The disputed Prime Minister of Somalia, Nur « Adde » Hassan Hussein, has traveled to the neighboring Republic of Djibouti to strengthen a recent peace pact he signed with an opposition faction, Radio Garowe reports.

Nur Adde, who was boosted by last week’s vote of confidence, flew from the southwestern town of Baidoa where parliament approved his new Cabinet.

His plane made a brief stop in Mogadishu, the national capital, where a number of Cabinet ministers joined him on the trip to Djibouti.

« We are going to Djibouti to reinforce the Djibouti Agreement, » Nur Adde told journalists at Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport.

He held a brief meeting with members of Mogadishu’s local government and the national police command, the Prime Minister’s aides said.

Nur Adde expressed optimism and support for the ongoing visit to Mogadishu by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chairman of a divided opposition coalition known as the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS).

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has rejected the Djibouti Agreement, which was reached between Nur Adde and Sheikh Sharif following UN-brokered talks.

Yusuf, who refuses to recognize Nur Adde’s premiership, appointed Mohamed Mohamud « Gamodheere » as Somalia’s new Prime Minister two days ago.

But Nur Adde did not mention the ongoing dispute with Yusuf during brief comments to the media at Mogadishu airport, telling reporters that he had « no time » for questions.

The widening split between Yusuf and Nur Adde threatens to destroy the UN-recognized interim government and plunge Somalia deeper into chaos.

__________________________________ 1 – En Anglais

Le Président somalien accusé d’avoir remis illégalement des armes à ses propres milices à partir de stocks prélevés sur les dotations de l’armée régulière et d’avoir fait arrêter tout aussi illégalement de hauts responsables. // ‘Somali leader armed clan with TFG guns’

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has illegally armed his clan with weapons belonging to the country’s transitional government, report says.

A fact-finding mission, tasked by the Somali Parliament with investigating accusations of corruption against Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, claims the president arranged for the transfer of the weaponry to his clansmen Majerteen, a Press TV correspondent reported on Thursday.

Informing the lawmakers of the delegation’s findings, Parliament spokesman Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur also accused Yusuf Ahmed of pocketing great chunks of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) funds.

The news comes after, on Tuesday, Yusuf Ahmed replaced premier Nur Hassan Hussein with his appointee Mohamud Mohamed Guled, reportedly violating the constitution.

The move came amid Somalia’s ongoing struggle to agree on a cabinet since Hussein’s predecessor Ali Mohamed Gedi stepped down in October 2007.

Hussein’s dismissal and Gedi’s resignation have both been put down to the two former officials’ defying the president’s will to use the state budgets to fund his clansmen and ‘other foreign mafia’.

During the parliamentary session, the president was also charged with ordering his clan’s gunmen to illegally arrest some legal authorities of the government including the Chairman of the Supreme Court Yusuf Ali Haruun.