"Staggering" one million Somalis displaced

By Aweys Yusuf

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The number of Somalis uprooted by fighting in their own country has hit a "staggering" one million, with nearly 200,000 streaming out of the capital in the past two weeks alone, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Up to 600,000 people were thought to have fled Mogadishu since February, when clashes pitting allied Somali-Ethiopian troops against suspected Islamist insurgents started escalating.

The numbers of displaced this year are in addition to the 400,000 that fled their homes because of previous fighting in the nation of 10 million people.

U.N. refugee agency UNHCR released the data as a top candidate for prime minister met the Somali president, raising hopes of political progress in a government struggling to end an insurgency, featuring roadside bombings and grenade attacks.

President Abdullahi Yusuf is closing in on a deadline to name a new premier since Ali Mohamed Gedi resigned on October 29, losing a political feud that nearly paralysed the government -- the 14th attempt to restore central rule to Somalia since 1991.

Candidate Nur Hassan Hussein, the vice-president of the Somali Red Crescent office and a lawyer with a background in government administration, met Yusuf on Thursday in Baidoa.

"He is the most likely candidate to be appointed as prime minister," deputy parliament Speaker Mohamed Omar Dalha told Reuters. "It is just a matter of time before he is appointed."

Dalha said Hussein's candidacy would have to go before parliament, still based in the south-central trading town of Baidoa, for approval within 24 hours of his nomination.

Somali presidential officials could not be reached for comment, but a close aide to the president said by telephone: "Hussein is in Baidoa. He has not been nominated yet and we are not sure if that will happen today or tomorrow."

RADIO CRACKDOWN

Diplomats and analysts who follow Somalia from Nairobi said Hussein met with U.S. officials on Monday, including the special envoy for Somalia, John Yates, and Michael Ranneberger, the ambassador to Kenya who is also responsible for Somalia.

Hussein, believed to be in his 70s, served in various roles in the government of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, whose 1991 fall unleashed an era of anarchy and violence.

Hussein is from Gedi's Abgal subclan of the Hawiye clan, which meets a power-sharing arrangement that stipulates a Hawiye must hold the premiership since the presidency is held by Yusuf, from the Darod clan.

The inter-clan struggles, coupled with Gedi and Yusuf's feuding almost since their government was formed at peace talks in Kenya in late 2004, has all but stopped efforts to build the transitional government's administration.

It has been further complicated by a rebellion in Mogadishu by mostly Islamist insurgents, who have attacked the government and its Ethiopian military allies incessantly this year.