Somalia’s parliament on Saturday unanimously selected Hamza Abdi Barre as the country’s new prime minister, paving the way for the creation of a new government, reported France 24.
All 220 lawmakers present in the parliament voted in favour of Barre and he was then sworn in to office, the parliament speaker said.
The 48-year-old Barre replaces Mohamed Hussein Roblewho has been in office since September 2020. He was voted in as a lawmaker in Kismayo, the commercial capital of Jubbaland, in December in a long-delayed and chaotic parliamentary election process.
He served in a number of public and political roles and from 2011 to 2017 was secretary-general of the Peace and Development Party (PDP), the precursor to the Union for Peace and Development (UDP) now led by Somalian President Mohamud.
After being selected as Somalia’s new prime minister, the 48-year-old Barre told parliament he would form a quality government that would work to create an inclusive political stability (in line with) the president’s motto of a reconciled Somalia that is at peace with the world.
The appointment of the new prime minister came a month after the parliament elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud the new president of the Horn of Africa nation. Notably, the country has not held one-person-one-vote elections since the civil war erupted in 1991.
Somalia’s president nominated lawmaker Barre as the country’s new prime minister on June 15.
“Our government has an ambitious policy programme which seeks to improve our security, strengthen our economy and deliver basic services for our people,” Mohamud said on Twitter after Barre was approved.
The president himself did not appear at the parliamentary session after he said on Friday that he had tested positive for Covid-19.
Somalia’s new administration faces a number of challenges including a looming famine and a grinding insurgency by Al-Shabaab jihadists.
