Somali parliament approves new cabinet

Somalia’s 275-member parliament passed the proposed list of cabinet ministers of Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire by a vote of 224 to 15, according to a report aired by a state radio on Wednesday.

Only 241 members attended the session in which only two members abstained from the vote. The ministers were sworn in immediately by the supreme court, according to the said radio.

The Somali premier had named the 26-member cabinet on Tuesday last week.

The prime minister’s own appointment by the president was controversial, because UN sanctions experts had previously accused Soma of paying Somalia’s oil ministry nearly $600,000 to protect a 2013 exploration contract. Britain’s Serious Fraud Office investigated but found insufficient evidence to prosecute.

Somalia has been in turmoil since 1991, hit by decades of conflict at the hands of clan militias.

President Mohamed has pledged to 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.