Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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March 14, 2007

Somali Government Moves to Mogadishu
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=16A4EDD:A6F02AD83191E160DCCF5662EBA8BF989574F7DCC14957C0 Re-location
applies to president, prime minister, and ministers of Somalia's
transitional government Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Tuesday moved
to Somalia's volatile capital from the government's former base in
Baidoa. Several hours later, witnesses reported seeing several mortar
shells hitting Somalia's presidential residence in Mogadishu. Cathy
Majtenyi reports for VOA from Nairobi.







Interim Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed (R) with his PM Ali
Mohamed Gedi during a media briefing in Mogadishu, 09 Jan 2007Yusuf
will now be living in Villa Somalia, the presidential residence in
violence-wracked Mogadishu.

The re-location applies to the president, Prime Minister, and
ministers of Somalia's transitional government. Members of parliament
will continue meeting in Baidoa. Somali Minister of Foreign Affairs
Esmael Mohamud Hurreh explains to VOA the reason for the move.

"We want to stabilize Mogadishu, and we cannot stabilize Mogadishu by
being outside Mogadishu," he said.  "We have to go in there with the
reconciliation, bringing all Somalis together, at the same time having
our security forces operating in the city."

Baidoa, a town some 220 kilometers northwest of the capital, was
chosen in 2006 to be the government base after Yusuf refused to set up
in Mogadishu, because of security concerns.

But now there are more than 1,000 Ugandan troops in Mogadishu as part
of an African Union force deployed to bring stability to the volatile
nation.

Among other things, the African Union troops are to protect the
president and other government personnel as well as government
operations.

The troops join Ethiopian soldiers who are still in Somalia. They had
come to the country near the end of last year to back Somali
government forces battling with the Islamic Courts Union.

Many of Mogadishu's buildings bear the scars of the country's
long-running civil war that was sparked in 1991 following the ouster
of Siad Barre.

Some of the buildings are partially or completely destroyed, while
many are marked with bullet holes.

Foreign minister Hurreh says that the poor infrastructure poses a
challenge to the government's move.

"We'll use some makeshift space to operate from," he added.  "Some of
the ministries can be refurbished very quickly. Some of them will have
to be rebuilt."

Hurreh says the government will be aiming to build permanent
government structures in the capital.

Somalia's transitional government was formed in neighboring Kenya more
than two years ago following a peace process.


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