Somali President Fails to Console Fearful Somalis

The Somali President recently returned to Mogadishu, where intense fighting took place a day prior to his arrival. On Saturday, the President held a news conference highlighted by his condemnation to the call by Osama Bin Laden to overthrow the current Somali government. He also reaffirmed that his government needs support from the African Peace Keepers and that their departure is to be decided only by the Somalis themselves. However, the Somali citizens feel the President maybe ignoring the real issues. The freshly new clashes among rival groups in the capital Mogadishu that's spreading renewed fear among its residents. Full Story
More than two thousand African Union troops secretly landed in Mogadishu airport last week bringing thier total to above five thousand. Numerous anti government factions cried foul accusing Sheik Sharif's parliament of allowing foreign troops to come while telling Somalis that they're working on sending them home.

A call for the departure of the current number of African peace keepers is in a mandate agreed upon by both the Somali government and anti government Islamic resistance groups such as Hisbul Islam, Alshabab and others. The agreement was the back bone of a cease fire agreed on by all parties after the local Islamic Scholars mediated the mini peace accord.

Somali news web sites add that many Somalis are disappointed with the President for not mentioning, in his news conference, the current clashes among several rival parties in Mogadishu causing unrest in his absence.

Interior Minister Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar Thursday survived an assassination attempt in the capital, Mogadishu following a roadside bomb blast. His secretary and another government official were killed in the assassination attempt although the interior minister survived the blast.