TFG preparing to begin operating from Jowhar

Somalia's interim government has begun establishing itself in the town of Jowhar, where it will be based until security is restored in the capital, Mogadishu, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

"The government is in the process of setting itself up in Jowhar and the prime minister [Ali Muhammad Gedi] laid the foundation for the construction of a larger airport yesterday [Tuesday]," Hussein Jabiri, director of information in the prime minister's office, said.

The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has been based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, for the eight months since its formation, and only began relocating to Somalia on 13 June.

Jabiri said the entire cabinet was expected to move to Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu, by 1 July, Somalia's independence day.

He said the expansion of the airport in Jowhar would cost US $900,000,and added that the expanded airport would facilitate the work of the government, which was expected to remain in Jowhar for "several months".

Poor lighting at the airstrip in Jowhar had forced a plane transporting President Adullahi Yusuf Ahmed from Nairobi to Somalia on 13 June to fly instead to neighbouring Djibouti. The President later flew to Yemen on official duties.

A section of the government disagreed with the decision to install the administration in Jowhar, and in May moved to Mogadishu saying it wanted to restore normalcy to the city so the government could operate from there.

About 100 members of the 275-strong parliament, led by Speaker Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden, earlier this month started an effort to rid Mogadishu of illegal roadblocks manned by armed militiamen, who were being asked to move to designated camps in the city.

"The government has no objection to that [efforts to restore security in Mogadishu]," Jabiri said. "It is a positive thing that should be supported."

Somalia had no functional central authority for the 14 years following the collapse in 1991 of the government of Muhammad Siyad Barre. Civil war erupted in the Horn of Africa state soon after Barre was toppled as various factions and rival warlords fought for power.

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, which is made up of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia, sponsored two years of peace talks between the various Somali clans and factions, culminating in the establishment of the TFG in Nairobi in October 2004.