Turmoil struck the Somali government yesterday as a fifth minister resigned in a power-sharing dispute a day after being appointed, and the president was hospitalized in Kenya with a "severe cold".
A security official described President Abdullahi Yusuf, 72, as being in a "serious condition" when he arrived in Nairobi from neighboring Somalia yesterday.
But the government and diplomats played down the threat to his health.
"He is not as serious as we thought. He was not carried by an ambulance. He went in his Mercedes to the hospital," said Ali Mohamed Sheikh, chief of protocol at the Somali Embassy to Kenya.
"He was walking, he was better than we expected," Sheik said. "He is suffering from a severe cold but he is stable."
Yusuf is a long-surviving liver transplant patient and for years has flown abroad for specialized treatment. He had been due to go to London for a checkup this week.
Government spokesman Abdi Haji Gobdon said: "I guess he is just tired because he had a long meeting with the prime minister last night, but he is not in a serious condition."
Five ministers have quit the Cabinet of new Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, striking a blow to his plans to unify a government paralyzed by infighting for nearly three years.
Deputy minister for religious affairs, Sheikh Jama Haji Hussein, said he resigned after talking to elders and politicians from his Jarerweyne sub-clan, a part of the Fifth clan - a catch-all grouping of Somalia's smallest clans.
"The clan that I hail from has always been discriminated (against) and has never been given its fair posts in any government formed in Somalia from the day the country gained independence," he told reporters in the southern town of Baidoa where parliament sits.
Hussein's government is the 14th attempt at establishing effective central rule since clan warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
The clan issue - paramount in Somali life and politics - has beset the interim government since it was formed at peace talks in Kenya three years ago.
Four ministers from the Rahanwein clan - one of the big four clans - quit late on Monday, including National Security Minister Hassan Mohamed Nur Shatigadud.
"We decided to resign because we, as Rahanwein, have been scorned and we have not been given our fair share in Nur Adde's new government," Shatigadud told a news conference, referring to the premier by his nickname Nur Adde.
The squabbling highlights the difficulty of Hussein's task to unite the lawless Horn of Africa country whose 10 million citizens are more likely to pledge allegiance to their clan than a national government.
Hussein's inauguration last month was seen as an opportunity for reconciliation in Somalia where fighting between government troops and Islamist insurgents has killed almost 6,000 civilians, and uprooted hundreds of thousands this year.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
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