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Anti-president Somali soldiers stay put

Abdi SheikhAAP
MPs approved a two-year term extension for Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed in April.
Camera IconMPs approved a two-year term extension for Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed in April. Credit: AP

Somali forces who support the opposition say they will not relinquish control of parts of the capital until the president stands down, a spokesman for the loose alliance of opposition forces says.

Officials and some opposition leaders signed a ten-point agreement on Wednesday aimed at ending the months-long political stand-off over a proposed two-year presidential term extension that has twice flared into violence in the capital.

The agreement included demands that opposition-allied forces return to barracks within 48 hours, that soldiers be apolitical and a promise that soldiers who declared support for the opposition would not be penalised.

"Forces should not be used for politics or interfered with," said the government's assistant information minister Abdirahman Yusuf al Cadaala.

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But some other opposition leaders including the spokesman for the opposition-allied troops rejected the agreement, raising the possibility that the stand-off could continue.

"We shall not go back to barracks until the former president hands over the entire security and command forces to the prime minister," Major Diini Ahmed, the spokesman for the opposition-allied troops, told Reuters late on Wednesday.

Ahmed said the agreement was "nothing to do with us".

The crisis began when Somalia failed to select a new crop of legislators in December who were supposed to elect a new president in February.

In April, the lower half of parliament approved a two-year term extension for incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, commonly referred to by his nickname "Farmaajo"; although the Senate rejected it.

Opposition-backing forces refuse to accept Mohamed as president.

"We are national forces. We are not attacking anyone. We are against dictatorship," Ahmed told Reuters.

On Saturday, MPs rescinded their approval of the term extension but some in the opposition remain skeptical of the president's willingness to leave power and are pushing for him to immediately hand over power to his prime minister.

"Farmaajo is against the constitution," said opposition Senator Muse Sudi Yalahow as he presented camels to opposition-allied soldiers whom he called "liberators".

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