Somalia: mortar fire in Mogadishu as Parliament validates new government

The new Somali government in Mogadishu, August 2, 2022. AFP - HASSAN ALI ELMI

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

The events of this Sunday, August 7 in the capital Mogadishu illustrate the challenges ahead for the authorities.

Shortly after the approval of the government by Parliament, mortar shells were fired in neighborhoods near the presidential palace.

An attack not claimed, but which bears the signature of the Islamist movement Shebab.  

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President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud and his Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre did not have time to celebrate this breakthrough, this political victory. 

While Parliament had just approved by a large majority, 229 votes for 7 against, the composition of the government, a team of 75 ministers and vice-ministers, and the American embassy congratulated the political leaders and spoke

", these are detonations that shook the capital. 

"

," said Mohamed Abdifatah, one of the area's security officials, who added that an investigation is underway and that this attack caused no casualties.

Witnesses said a private hospital was damaged. 

The attacks of the Shebab movement have multiplied in recent months, the Islamists have taken advantage of repeated crises at the top of the executive.

For the Head of State, who has also integrated Muktar Robow, a former leader of Shebab, into his government, the challenges are therefore multiple: security, but also the economy and food: seven million Somalis, half of the inhabitants, are in food and climate insecurity;

the drought has displaced 900,000 people.

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• Somalia

• Shebabs

• Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud