NAIROBI, 2 February 2009 (IRIN) - The best hope for Somalia's 1.3 million displaced is if the new president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, can boost security and stability, a parliamentarian close to him said.
The Muslim cleric and former chairman of the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS), was elected by the Somali parliament in Djibouti on 31 January.
"The new president's priority is security and stability, particularly in Mogadishu," Ahmed Abdullahi a member of parliament and former ARS spokesman said. "He will continue the reconciliation process and is confident that the Somali conflict can be resolved [through] a national unity government."
The new president, he said, wanted to make sure that the hundreds of thousands displaced return to their homes. "The president is keen to see that all the displaced are resettled in their homes and that can only happen with guaranteed security," Abdullahi said.
Some displaced Somalis have recently returned to the capital, Mogadishu, for the first time in two years. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 16,000 had returned to Yaaqshiid, Haliwaa and Wardhiigley.
The return followed the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Mogadishu, including from these three districts which witnessed some of the worst violence and human rights abuses some months ago.
Mogadishu volatile
The city, however, was still extremely volatile, UNHCR said. Last week, 10,000 civilians fled advancing Islamists in the northeastern districts of Dharkenley and Wadajir, moving mostly to other neighbourhoods within Mogadishu or to the city outskirts.
The new president was the chairman of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) before it was ousted by Ethiopian troops in late 2006. He led the opposition to the Ethiopian presence until he started talks with the Somali transitional government in 2008.
Abdullahi Shirwa, a civil society activist, said the new president needed to win over the population to restore security. "History tells us that those who engage in force fail," he told IRIN. "He must try a different approach to succeed."
"He knows the language of the insurgents"
Another Somali observer, however, said Ahmed may be better placed than others to bring peace and stability to the country. "He knows the language of the insurgents, and can draw them into a dialogue," he said.
Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 when armed groups overthrew Mohamed Siyad Barre, precipitating a ruinous civil war that saw numerous warring warlords and their militias carve up the country into fiefdoms.
An estimated one million Somalis have fled Mogadishu since February 2007, when fighting erupted between Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government soldiers and insurgents, according to the UNHCR.
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