Somalia ‘ends’ civil war with charter draft

MOGADISHU - Agence France-Presse

Somali’s Constituent Assembly members hold proposed new constitution. AP photo

Somalia’s constituent assembly endorsed a draft constitution yesterday, billed as a key step to ending decades of civil war, and shortly after two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates. “We are very happy today that you... responsibly completed the procedure by voting for the constitution,” Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali told the 825-strong assembly after it approved the draft by a landslide 96 percent.

“I announce that Somalia has from today left the transitional period.” The special assembly, chosen by traditional elders in a U.N.-backed process, took eight days to debate and votes on the new constitution for Somalia, as the graft-riddled government approaches the end of its mandate on Aug. 20. “This is an historic day, today we have witnessed the completion of a task that has been worked on for the last eight years,” said Abdirahman Hosh Jabril, Somalia’s constitutional affairs minister.