Saturday, November 24, 2007
Mogadishu - The Somali parliament on Saturday approved a new prime minister appointed earlier this week to help steer the war-wracked Horn of Africa nation back to stability.
Nur Hassan Hussein, 69, took the oath of office after 211 of the present 212 parliamentarians endorsed him in the provincial town of Baidoa, where parliament was based.
"I promise that I will lead the country honestly and I will do everything that I can to stabilise Somalia," Hussein told parliament.
President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed named the veteran law-enforcement and aid official on Thursday to replace Ali Mohamed Gedi who was forced to resign last month after a long-running power struggle with the president.
Hussein became the second premier in Yusuf's three-year-old transitional government that was struggling to end years of violence and an Islamist-led insurgency ravaging the capital.
Source: AFP, Nov 24, 2007