The African Union on Saturday named former Ghanaian president John Mahama its High Representative to Somalia to try and resolve a dire political crisis due to a dispute over delayed elections.<\/p>\n
Mahama\u2019s aim would be \u201ca mutually acceptable compromise towards an all-encompassing resolution for the holding of Somali elections in the shortest possible time,\u201d the AU said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The continental body\u2019s chairman Moussa Faki urged Somali leaders to \u201cnegotiate in good faith\u2026 for an inclusive settlement to the electoral crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n
Somalia needs \u201ca democratically elected government with the legitimacy and mandate to resolve the remaining outstanding political and constitutional issues that are posing a threat to the stability of the country and the region as a whole,\u201d Faki added.<\/p>\n
Mahama, a 62-year-old who led Ghana from 2012 to 2017, is expected in Somalia \u201cin the coming days\u201d.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s political crisis has sharpened in recent weeks, following a resolution to extend the term of incumbent president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed by two years.<\/p>\n
No election could be organised before Mohamed, widely known as Farmajo, reached the end of his term on February 8.<\/p>\n
Both the Somali opposition and international players condemned the attempt to extend Mohamed\u2019s presidency, and opposition fighters took up positions in the capital in late April \u2014 prompting a tense standoff with government troops.<\/p>\n
Three were killed in fighting between the two sides when the opposition arrived last month, prompting tens of thousands of civilians to flee their homes.<\/p>\n
Farmajo has since ordered Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble to set up elections as soon as possible and bring together the leaders of Somalia\u2019s regional states later this month.<\/p>\n
The deal was enough to secure the withdrawal of opposition fighters from the capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The African Union on Saturday named former Ghanaian president John Mahama its High Representative to Somalia to try and resolve a dire political crisis due to a dispute over delayed elections. Mahama\u2019s aim would be \u201ca mutually acceptable compromise towards an all-encompassing resolution for the holding of Somali elections in the shortest possible time,\u201d the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":59270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59271,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59269\/revisions\/59271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}