Middle East Online
DJIBOUTI - Djibouti's new prime minister took office on
Monday after President Ismail Omar Guelleh reshuffled his cabinet in the wake
of rioting in the strategic Horn of Africa nation over elections marred by
widespread fraud.
Guelleh named former defence minister Abdoulkader Kamil
Mohamed to replace longtime ally Dileita Mohamed Dileita who had served as
prime minister since 2001.
Guelleh's Union for Presidential Majority (UMP) won a
parliamentary election on February 22 with 49 percent of the vote, according to
official results that triggered clashes between opposition protesters and
police.
The elections saw various opposition parties unite under
the Union for National Salvation (USN) banner with a common programme focusing
on human rights, developing independent media and fighting against
"tribalism, corruption and nepotism".
The USN described the reshuffle as an attempt by the
president to surround himself "with a team of zealous loyalists hated by
the people".
Mohamed, who was born in 1951, previously served as the
head of a state-owned water agency and agriculture minister before being
appointed to the defence ministry in 2011.
Some Djiboutians charged that the reshuffle did not
represent real change.
"Where is this so-called change in this new
government? It is just the same people holding different offices," teacher
Ahmed Ali said. "We want real change."
Of 21 ministers, only five in minor ministries did not
make it back into the cabinet.
Tiny Djibouti hosts the biggest French and US military
bases in Africa and guards the southern entry to the Red Sea and route to the
Suez Canal. It derives most of its revenue from its port and from land rented
out for the Western bases.
Guelleh, 65, only the second president since independence
from France in 1977, was re-elected for a third five-year mandate in April 2011
after the constitution was revised to allow him another term.
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