WITHIN days of assuming the presidency, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, President of Somalia, called upon armed groups in the country to accept peace, in what many see as the new government's seriousness to catapult the country out of its decades-long crisis. Somalia has long been an archetypical failed state. The government is faced with various challenges, chief among them being the prioritization of what needs to be done first in the horn of Africa country that has almost no running water or electricity. The country's infrastructure was However, countrymen who live here sound positive and energetic about the promise of peace. “The new government has come to power by means of fair elections held outside the country in Djibouti and comprises most of Somali society. It is a government of national unity that we finally got after a long wait and negotiations between the opposition and the traditional government,” said Mohamed Abdi Kulmie, Somali Consul General in Jeddah. “This government is a solution for the protracted crisis and problems in Somalia. Though the government is faced with many difficulties, I hope it is able to come out of them soon,” he said. Kulmie said when a country is stable and peaceful, its people who live outside the country are treated differently and are respected. “Somalis have suffered economically for a long time. Everything is imported from other nations. I hope the change in government can bring positive results on this front also,” he said. Kulmie said the other major issues facing the new government are security, reconciliation, political establishment, and the setting up of government institutions. “All this will happen gradually. Our hopes are very high,” he said. According to reports, the United Nations has invested millions of dollars to prop up the process of governance in the country. But whether Somalia pulls itself together now depends entirely on its people, and more specifically, on the country's different clans. “The most important thing that we need is peace, and this is what we are expecting from the new government,” said Dr. Ahmed Khali, a Somali national working in King Abdul Aziz Hospital, Makkah. Noor Gatha, another Somali expatriate, hoped for a definitive end to bloodshed in the country. The Somali government collapsed in 1978 giving way to a regime of military dictatorship. “The various Somali groups will support the new president if he is able to unite them all,” said Ahmed Bawafil, assistant director of the World Muslim Congress, Somalia. President Sheikh Ahmed was sworn in on January 31. “The new president is a young man who can bring positive changes to not only the Somali Muslims, but also to the country's non-Muslims,” said Sayed Mohamed, who works as a secretary at the Somali Consulate in Jeddah. Consul General Kulmie appealed to Somali nationals living in the Kingdom to always watch over their homeland and to contribute towards ending the problems in Somalia.
