Somalia's Government Facing Collapse

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/ ... 5956.shtml

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Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) began life without a home, conducting business in a Kenyan sports center.

Since returning to battle-scarred Somalia in February, it rapidly found itself without a country to govern. By early June, Islamist militias seized the capital, Mogadishu, and took control of wide swaths of central and southern Somalia.

Now, the TFG is facing complete collapse after 38 ministers and assistant ministers have quit in the past nine days.

"What we need is the prime minister to have a clear policy to deal with moderates in the Islamic courts. As a government we have to have our principles and a strategy to talk with them," says Ibrahim Isaac Yerow, sipping a spiced cup of coffee outside the former grain warehouse where Parliament sits in the dusty provincial town of Baidoa. "We don't have that at the moment."

Before resigning Wednesday, Mr. Yerow was the assistant minister of national property. Four more ministers quit Thursday.

The emergence of the Union of Islamic Courts, now the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, as a political force in Somalia sent shockwaves through Western governments earlier this year, raising fears that they could turn this country into a haven for Al Qaeda.

They took control of Mogadishu in June, ousting a coalition of warlords who allegedly received backing from the US.

Since then the TFG has seen its influence limited to the city of Baidoa, about 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu.

Deadlines for peace talks in Sudan have come and gone during the past month, with both sides blaming the other for sabotaging negotiations.

Ethiopian troops reportedly arrived here to bolster government defenses as Islamic militias moved to within 40 miles of Baidoa, although both sides now appear to have pulled back from all-out war.