Mogadishu-(Somalia) The political tension within the Somali government is mounting after President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed refused to accept the list of a new cabinet presented to him by Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali, APA learns here from government sources.

“For the past several days, the parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden has been trying to end the rift between them, but he failed after several attempts,” an official who begged for anonymity told APA on Thursday.

“The Prime Minister is insisting on his decision not to meet the president until he accepts his new cabinet list,” he said.

According to the source, President Sharif is arguing that some of the new cabinet members are not suitable for their posts, while the Prime Minister insists that his nominees are talented and will not be changed.

There has been political disagreement between both men after the president last month announced that he will appoint a new Prime Minister with Abdirashid refusing to leave office and that finally led to President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to withdraw his decision to fire his Prime Minister.

Somalia has been without a functioning central government since the 1991 downfall of former military rule of the late dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre. War and famine have engulfed the lives of more than half a million people since then.

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APA

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