Somalia’s Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Khaire, has appointed a new government of 26 ministers on Tuesday, British Broadcaster, The BBC reported.
The appointees include diplomats from the former government, finance experts, technocrats and economists.
Hassan Ali Khaire, an oil industry executive and former aid worker who has dual Somali and Norwegian citizenship, was appointed last month by the new president to form a new government after a quarter-century of conflict, terrorism and devastating drought.
The most pressing issue facing the new government is the on-going war with the Islamist group, al-Shabaab, coupled with a nearly three-year drought that has almost crippled the country’s economy – leading to the present famine.
The new Prime Minister tweeted on March 2 that his “priority and first emphasis” was to “assist the people affected by the severe drought and build resilience”.
Latest United Nations statistics indicate that about 6.2 million people, half the total population in Somalia – are in need of humanitarian aid and almost 3 million are facing crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity.
UNICEF warned last month that a potential 270,000 children were at risk of acute malnutrition due to the drought.