Hardline Islamist takes over Somali opposition

NAIROBI, Kenya – A fundamentalist Muslim suspected by the U.S. of collaborating with al-Qaida said yesterday he has taken over leadership of Somalia’s opposition alliance. Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys – who denies any links to terror – said he deposed the former chairman, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, because Ahmed had signed a U.N.-brokered peace deal with the government.

“From now on I will be the leader,” Aweys said by telephone, adding that the opposition decided to remove Ahmed as chairman “because of his misuse of the leadership.” Aweys said the opposition vote changed the group’s leadership on Tuesday night. It was not immediately clear where the vote was cast or how many opposition members took part. Aweys and other hardline members of the opposition alliance did not respect the U.N.-brokered peace deal Ahmed signed last month.

The deal has had no effect on the ground in this bloodstained country, where a vicious insurgency has killed thousands of civilians since 2007. Ahmed, speaking by telephone from Djibouti, denounced the decision to remove him. “I only performed my duty, which is to help my people and my country get a lasting peace by all means,” Ahmed said.