Somaliland president makes fourth cabinet reshuffle in less than a year

The president of the breakaway region of Somaliland has announced a new cabinet reshuffle dropping eight ministers with several new faces taking up different portfolios.

In a presidential decree issued late Sunday, president Ahmed Silanyo has appointed Farhaan Aadan Haybe Aviation minister in the new shake-up while Yasiin Haji Mohamud has been appointed as Interior Minister.

The presidential decree is seen as the most touching as general elections draw closer.

The new cabinet reshuffle, the fourth the president made since January comes few months after Somaliland started to register voters ahead of presidential elections in the region in 2017. However, no reason has been given for the new cabinet reshuffle.

The enclave had earlier announced that it will hold presidential elections in 2017, amid political uncertainty over the current president’s controversial term extension last year which sparked uproar.

Somaliland, a breakaway region in northern Somalia largely escaped Somalia’s two decades civil war.

Despite lacking an international recognition, Somaliland which runs its own parallel government and army considers itself as an independent state after it declared a unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991.