Galmudug Assembly unanimously approves the newly appointed cabinet

Somalia’s Galmudug regional Assembly has on Monday approved the 28 member appointed by president Abdikarim Hussein Guled two days ago.

This morning, the parliament chair begun to count the votes as the parliamentarian started to raise their hands to endorse or reject the approval of the new ministers appointed.

“Lawmakers have endorsed the new cabinet with a majority vote, 66 members out of the 69 who attended the session gave the ‘yes’ vote to the new cabinet,” said parliament speaker.

There has been hot debate for the last for last two days, as the Lawmakers were divided into two wings; one backing the new cabinet and other one opposing it.

Galmudug president has Friday evening unveiled the first line up of his new cabinet members which also include four state ministers and 23 assistant minister. Notable in the list is Sheikh Ibrahim Hassan the chairman of Ahlu-Sunna Waljama’a who signed the peace agreement on behalf of the group .

On Thursday, Gulled signed a deal with a renegade wing led by Sheikh Ibrahim Gureye in Adado.

Nevertheless, Galmudug presidential claimant Sheikh Mohamed Shakir Ali Hassan rejected the peace initiative and distanced himself from any agreement.

“Ahlu Sunna was not part of the agreement and it has united. [Paramilitary group] formed administration in the will of central regions communities,” Hassan told reporters in his stronghold, Dhusamareb.

The moderate Islamists have wrested control of Dhusamareb, Guri’el and a string of villages.

Challenges

Huge task is lying ahead of the cabinet in a region where they have to start everything from zero, there are no ministries, departments, bills, and systems in place, and their main task in the coming months should be to put things together before they can deliver.

This is doubled with the greatest challenge of all, which is the security, the designated capital city of Dhusamareb is now under control by opposition armed group Ahlu Sunna which refused to recognize Galmudug.

Alshabab , another hard-line rebel group controls swaths of territories in the central regions, a task for the newly approved cabinet to clear them out.

As if those problems are so small to solve, Galmudug is facing the prospect of economic uncertainty as there are no income generation sources like port or other easily available resources.

Goobjoog News