By ABDULKADIR KHALIF
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Mogadishu, Somalia (AfricaReview) - The Council of Elders of Somali’s Digil and Mirifle clans have backed the Cabinet’s rejection of UN-organised consultative meeting that begins in Nairobi Tuesday.
The clan elders further called for the sacking of the Speaker of the Somali Parliament, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, who they accused of attempting to wreck the government formed in Djibouti in early 2009.
Council chairman Said Omar Haji told the media in Mogadishu that they were opposed to the Speaker leading a delegation to Nairobi to the UN-organised talks.
Mr Haji indicated that the Speaker and his group had ignored the state procedure and called on the MPs to remove him from his position.
The Speaker of the council of elders, Mr Madiyow Mohamed Aftin, stressed that Somalia has a government with the mandate of executing political affairs. He added that the Nairobi meeting was against the interest of Somalia.
Since Somalis currently share power by clan formula known as 4.5, Digil and Mirifle is the constituency of the Somali Speaker of the Parliament Sharif Aden.
March 30, Dr Augustine Philip Mahiga, the Secretary General of the United Nations' Special Envoy to Somalia, came to Mogadishu to invite leaders, including the Speaker, the PM and the President to participate in the Nairobi meeting, together with some regional authority representatives such as Puntland, Galmudug and the moderate Islamist group, Ahlu Sunna wal-Jamea.
Somaliland reportedly declined association with the talks, insisting to be independent from the rest of Somalia.