From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Feb 04 2009 - 13:23:50 EST
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Somalia: President Denies He is Seeking Military Aid
Ahmednor Mohamed Farah
3 February 2009
Addis Ababa — The office of Somali's president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed
strongly denied media reports saying that the president demanded foreign
troops to fight "extremists," an official told radio Shabelle on
Tuesday. Media
reports said president Sheik Sharif demanded foreign, military forces to
fight against extremism.
Ahmed Moalin Fiqi, the spokesman of the president said that the president
has not demanded any foreign troops.
"This is absolutely false and it is an attempt to detract the efforts of the
president and the ongoing peace process," said Ahmed Moalin Fiqi.
The Somali president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed was speaking to the reporters
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and insisted that he was not planning to demand
foreign forces, but he said that he was going to build Somali national
security forces.
President Sheik Sharif told to the reporters during his press conference in
Addis Ababa that he will try his best to negotiate with those who rejected
to be part of the peace process, especially Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweis, the
leader of a wing from the Alliance of the Re-liberation of Somalia based in
the Eritrean capital Asmara.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, an Islamist cleric who was elected president by
Somalia's transitional parliament on Saturday, called for international
assistance to help rebuild the country's army in order to stop pirates
organizing attacks.
The problem of piracy off Somalia's shores "is not on the sea, it's on the
land," Ahmed told reporters today at the African Union summit in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. "Only the Somali government can deal with those
who are on the land."
The spokesman said the president is flying back to Djibouti tomorrow where
he is expected to form his government.
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