The problem is, just as the military equation is changing in Somalia, the government is about to go through a seemingly pointless upheaval — again.
The president has made an agreement with the speaker of Parliament, Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden, an illiterate but wily livestock trader who used to be his friend and recently had become his nemesis, to extend the transitional government by one more year. As part of the arrangement, the two leaders also agreed to dismiss the prime minister, so the speaker could bring more allies into high positions.
This deal came after months of intense international pressure, and many diplomats who work on Somalia seem exasperated by the government’s seemingly endless capacity for squabbling.
“This is such a waste,” said one Western diplomat in Nairobi on Sunday. “It’s not like we’re trying to reconcile the government with the Shabab. We’re trying to bring two guys together who were together just a year ago.”
Somalia’s prime minister, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, is considered one of Somalia’s most capable politicians and had achieved a modicum of success in simple things like making sure that government soldiers were paid and that their salaries were not stolen by corrupt commanders, as had been the case for years.
As soon as word of his dismissal had spread, soldiers rioted across Mogadishu. Equally interesting, perhaps, were the huge protests by Mogadishu’s war-weary populace, who are predominantly from the Hawiye clan, while the prime minister is from a rival clan, the Darod.
Many analysts saw this as an important sign that after 20 years of clan-fueled anarchy, Somalis were willing to overlook clan rivalries for the sake of more important matters
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/world ... malia.html
