JOWHAR, Somalia, June 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Somalia's transitional government would relocate next week into Jowhar town, 90 km north of the capital Mogadishu, Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi has said.
Gedi arrived in Jowhar on Tuesday by a United Nations chattered plane with a delegation of senior UN officials on a mission to inaugurate the newly rehabilitated canal which was built in the early 1980s by the Chinese to avert flooding.
"My government will be relocating to Jowhar immediately after the farewell party to be hosted by the Kenyan government next week.Jowhar is relatively calm and I am also encouraged by leadership under Mohammed Dhere (faction leader who controls the area)," Geditold reporters.
"I can't give you a specific date because it has not been decided, but as soon as the farewell which is on June 13 is over, we will be ready to move," he said when asked about the date.
Several thousand cheering and dancing Jowhar residents lined upalong the bumpy and dusty main road to greet Gedi, waving Somali flags and posters of the premier as well as placards.
"You can see the people of Jowhar are willing to welcome the government. The will is there, the public demand is there. These people are trying to create a climate for peace which will make security possible and for the rule of law to prevail," said Gedi who was inspecting rehabilitation works at the soon to be courtroom and police station.
The fledgling government has remained in Kenya since its formation there last year. Citing insecurity, it has repeatedly postponed plans to relocate back to Somalia which remains a patchwork of fiefdoms ruled by rival warlords.
A bitter debate over where the new administration should be based has also caused a split in the government and slowed down relocation plans.
Gedi said the government would open an office in Mogadishu where he will be personally based to monitor the situation and once it is decided that the capital is ready, the government will move there.
The Somali transitional parliament elected Abdullahi Yusuf president last October in Kenya after two years of talks aimed at ending 14 years of warfare and anarchy.
Somalia has been without a central government since clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Warlords then turned on each other, plunging the Horn of Africa nation of 7 million people into anarchy.
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