Somalia president announces resignation

Source: Agencies  |   2008-12-30  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

SOMALIA'S president resigned yesterday as the head of his country's United Nations-backed government after four years of leading one of the most impoverished countries in the world.

Abdullahi Yusuf made the announcement in a speech before parliament in Baidoa ?? one of the only towns controlled by the weak government, which has been sidelined by an increasingly powerful insurgency. The speaker of parliament will stand in as acting president until elections.

"When I took power I pledged three things," Yusuf said in his address, which was broadcast on radio nationwide.

"If I was unable to fulfill my duty I will resign. Second, I said I will do everything in my power to make government work across the country. That did not happen either. Third, I asked the leaders to cooperate with me for the common good of the people. That did not happen," he said.

Yusuf's administration failed to bring security to the war-ravaged nation and now only controls pockets of the capital, Mogadishu, and Baidoa. Insurgents control most of the country.

Thousands of civilians have been killed or maimed by mortar shells, machine-gun crossfire and grenades in near-daily fighting in this arid, Horn of Africa country.

The UN says that Somalia has 300,000 acutely malnourished children, but that attacks and kidnappings of aid workers have shut down many of the humanitarian projects in the area.

The lawlessness also has allowed piracy to flourish off the coast.

Rights groups have accused all sides in the conflict - insurgents, the government and troops from neighboring Ethiopia who are here supporting the administration - of committing war crimes and other serious abuses for indiscriminately firing on civilian neighborhoods and non-combatants.

The most aggressive insurgency group, al-Shabab, has made dramatic territory gains in the past few months.