Somalia: Parliament passes contentious bill on resources sharing

MOGADISHU, Somalia – The lawmakers of Somalia’s Federal parliament approved a controversial bill on Saturday, May 18 that defines the natural resources sharing, Garowe Online reports.

The development comes amid long-standing controversy between Somalia’s government and the Federal Member Stats over the Horn of Africa nation’s untapped reserves and numerous resources.

During Saturday’s parliamentary sitting, 140 lawmakers voted in favor of the new bill, five rejected and there have been no abstaining, according to a statement released by the House of the People.

The legislation now heads to the president's desk for his signature to become a law.

The Somali political elite convened a week-long meeting in Garowe that ended with no breakthrough in long-running political rift and distrust between the Federal Government and the Federal Member States.

The meeting was supposed to address a wide range of issues, including election law, resources sharing particularly the Petroleum, political parties, constitution review and other key points such as security.

The collapse of the talks leaves a lot of issues unaddressed amid an upcoming election in the next one and half years. A lot more also is the deepened deadlock between Mogadishu and the regional states.

GAROWE ONLINE