The East African
Thursday February 11 2021
Sheikh Sharif Ahmed (centre) and other opposition presidential aspirants speak to journalists in Mogadishu, Somalia. PHOTO | COURTESY
Summary
Group wants talks held on their terms, including that President Farmaajo attends as a candidate and not as a sitting head of state.
On Tuesday, Farmaajo had called for a meeting of all federal state leaders to be held on February 15 in Garowe, Puntland.
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Somalia’s opposition groups have called for an urgent meeting with President Mohamed Farmaajo and other stakeholders in an attempt to resolve the electoral impasse that saw the country miss key poll deadlines.
As the clock ticked towards 12am on Monday, young men counted the seconds to midnight before firing a hail of bullets into the calm dark skies over the Somali capital to celebrate the end of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s term in office.
Rewind four years, and young men in Mogadishu were also turning their guns upwards but for the exact opposite reason – to express their joy at Mohamed, popularly known as Farmaajo, taking office.
Remarkably, in a country where clan loyalty runs deep, the crowd was celebrating the election defeat of their own clansmen. Running on a nationalist platform and a promise to wipe out the al-Qaeda-linked armed group al-Shabab, Farmaajo – a bespectacled Somali-American who lived for decades in Buffalo, New York – had defeated two former presidents who hail from the coastal city to clinch the top seat in the 2017 election.