Somalia’s new prime minister named a 26-strong cabinet on Tuesday, including a former foreign affairs chief as finance minister and a BBC journalist as the country’s top diplomat.
Hassan Ali Kheyre – A dual U.S.-Norwegian citizen and a former Norwegian Refugee Council director, has promised to tackle hunger, corruption and violence in Somalia, which has been mired in civil war for a quarter of a century.
On Tuesday, he named Abdirahman Duale Beyle as his finance minister and Yusuf Garaad Omar as foreign minister. Beyle, a former economist at the African Development Bank, served as foreign minister from 2014 to 2015. Omar, a dual British-Somali national, was head of the BBC’s Somali language service.
Other appointments included Abdi Farah Juha, a political novice who was named interior minister.
Somalia has been in turmoil since 1991, hit by decades of conflict at the hands of clan militias. Over the past several years, it has faced an insurgency by al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, which the government is battling with the help of regional troops.
Hassan has pledged his people that the era of al Shabaab and other Islamist militant groups was over, promising the group’s fighters “a good life” if they surrendered.
Hassan’s ministerial list will be put before the parliament for approval in the coming days.
