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Country's Aging President Off to UK for Medical Treatment


Garowe Online (Garowe)


NEWS
4 December 2007
Posted to the web 4 December 2007


A high-level Somali government delegation led by President Abdullahi Yusuf
departed from the southwestern city of Baidoa Tuesday en route to the Kenyan
capital, Nairobi.

President Yusuf's delegation included his recently appointed Prime Minister,
Col. Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein.



A diplomat in Nairobi said President Yusuf met with doctors there and
reportedly agreed to travel to London to see his regular doctor for further
medical evaluation.

The president, who is said to be in his mid 70s, suffers from fatigue and
complications from a past liver transplant.

His medical trip to London postponed a planned trip to Ethiopia, where United
States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is leading the push towards the
completion of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force to replace Ethiopian
troops backing Yusuf's weak government in Somalia.

Instead, Prime Minister Nur Adde will represent the president in talks with
U.S. and AU officials in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Nur Adde's first foreign trip as Somali premier comes at a sensitive time, with
parliament divided about ratifying his new Cabinet, many of whose members are
old Cabinet ministers.

At least four Cabinet ministers resigned from their posts today, and a fifth
deputy minister categorically refused to accept his appointment in front of
President Yusuf and Prime Minister Nur Adde, according to parliament sources.


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