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Report: Somalia

Somalia’s prime minister names new cabinet as Shebab deserter calls for peace

Somalia’s Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke has named a new cabinet, a few weeks after a previous cabinet was rejected and dissolved only days after being named. Earlier on Tuesday a former senior commander from Somalia's al-Shebab rebels appealed to the insurgents to talk peace with the country's internationally backed government.

Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke
Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke Reuters/Filippo Monteforte
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Late on Tuesday night Sharmarke named a leaner cabinet, full of new faces.

He announced the appointment of 18 ministers, decreasing the executive from the 26 in the previous cabinet, which lawmakers had rejected.

The Somali prime minister called on MPs to endorse the new administration and work towards 2016 for free and fair elections in the country.

Abdisalan Hadliye Omar, the former governor of Somalia's central bank, was named foreign minister.

The cabinet also includes two women. One of them, Khadra Bashir Ali, was named minister for education.

The defense portfolio went to Abdelhakim Abdulkadir Sheikh Ali Diini, who was the country's national army commander from 2010 to 2012.

Sharmarke is expected to present his cabinet and its programme to the Somali parliament in the coming days and a vote of confidence will be carried out to endorse or reject the ministerial line-up.

This comes as a senior al-Shebab commander who surrendered to Somali authorities last month called on the militia to seek a peaceful way of resolving the Somali conflict and work towards reconciliation.

Claiming that al-Shebab is now in total collapse, Zakariya Ismail Hersi told reporters on Tuesday that the group has been “hijacked,” leading to a distorted form of holy war that kills innocent civilians.

Hersi maintained that Shebab initially had objectives which many well-intentioned people would have welcomed but added that the leadership was responsible for distorting its ideology,

It is not clear if Hersi, described as a former Shebab intelligence chief, will face trial, although he once had a three-million-dollar bounty on his head from the US State Department
 

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