Somali president 'fires' prime minister as insurgency nears total control

Somalia's president fired his prime minister Sunday and accused him of paralyzing the government with "corruption, inefficiency and treason." Hours later, as the government veered toward collapse, Islamic insurgents held a brazen news conference in the capital and vowed never to negotiate with the leadership. President Abdullahi Yusuf announced his decision in Baidoa, one of the few towns the government still controls, in a country about the size of Texas. The prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, promised to challenge his dismissal, saying the president lacked the authority to fire him. The Somali Constitution stipulates that the Prime Minister can only be removed by a Parliamentary vote of "no confidence". But far from such a vote, the Parliament is expected to take up impeachment of the President. The clash appears related to an impending vote on a reconciliation agreement with the principal faction of moderate Islamists, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), who controlled most of Somalia prior to the 2006 Ethiopian invasion. Earlier this month, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the ICU, returned to Mogadishu for the first time since 2006, to negotiate the so-called Djibouti agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, the ICU would receive half the seats in an expanded parliament in return for ending its insurgency. But a spokesman for the more militant al-Shabab insurgent group held a news conference in the capital, declaring that, "We will never talk to the government and will never accept any political power sharing. Our aim is only to see Islamic law running this country." Ethiopia, which has been propping up the transitional government since 2006, says that it will withdraw its forces in the coming weeks. Most analysts say that as soon as the Ethiopians pull out, the al-Shabab insurgents will take over Mogadishu, and the transitional government will then collapse, as did the 13 transitional governments before it, the analysts predict. Sources: Associate Press, New York Times, Los Angeles Times compiled for the Global Report by Steve Livingston