Outgoing PM Roble apologizes to traditional elder for shooting

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali outgoing Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble on Sunday visited a leading community elder within Mogadishu where he apologized on behalf of the outgoing government, whose tenure expired this month.

According to the office of the Prime Minister, Mohamed Hussein Roble asked for forgiveness on behalf of the government, following the information shooting of Imam Mohamed Yusuf'ss vehicle by security forces, which left a number of people injured.

The traditional elder is respected across the country and the trip came at a time when the country is struggling to find a consensus on the thorny electoral dispute, which threatens to plunge the country into chaos, following the end of the term of Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo's administration.

"Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble today apologized on behalf of the government following the unfortunate shooting of the vehicle of Imam Mohamed Yusuf," read a dispatch from the office of the Prime Minister.

In Somalia, elders are special in social life, thus the respect accorded to them. The elders are set to pick the electors should the country go to elections in the coming weeks, following the decision by the leadership to admit the improved clan-based model of elections.

Elections were supposed to start in December but internal wrangles pitting President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, the federal member states, and the opposition leaders. The international community is now pushing for stakeholders to strike a consensus.

The country failed to hold a one-person-one-vote model of elections, but the international community insisted that the model that was agreed upon should be implemented.

Outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo had also called for dialogue starting today, but the vehicle had not been agreed upon.

GAROWE ONLINE